Ipse dixit
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A dogmatic and unproved proposition or dictum that is accepted solely on the authority of someone who is known to have asserted it. countable, rhetoric, uncountable
"To, avoid, therefore, all Imputation of laying down a Rule for Poſterity, founded only on the Authority of ipſe dixit; for which, to ſay the Truth, we have not the profoundeſt Veneration; […]"
- 2 an unsupported dogmatic assertion wordnet
- 3 An authority who makes such an assertion. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"To, avoid, therefore, all Imputation of laying down a Rule for Poſterity, founded only on the Authority of ipſe dixit; for which, to ſay the Truth, we have not the profoundeſt Veneration; […]"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin ipse dīxit (“he himself said it”), calque of Ancient Greek αὐτὸς ἔφα (autòs épha). Originally used by the followers of Pythagoreanism, who claimed this or that proposition to be uttered by Pythagoras himself. Extended during the Middle Ages to the statements of Aristotle, and more famously used in such contexts.