Who first started misusing the third person singular term "one" in place the first person singular I

Question

Members of the royal family and politicians frequently use phrases like "one doesn't generally have a drink before breakfast", when they really mean "I dont drink before breakfast". Mrs Thatcher frequently employed this form of words. Is this pretentious snobbery, ignorance of engilsh, or is there some rule in english I don't know about? Who started it all in the first place? Is it the modern equivalent of the royal we?

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I think it is perfectly correct to say "one should not drive without a seatbelt" when "one" is used as an alternative to "people" as a third person pronoun. I do not think it is correct to say "one lives in a large detached house", where "one" is used instead of I as a first person pronoun. Unfortunately "one" is all to frequently used instead of "I" by pretentious people. It is often used to give the impression that the writer is represetative of the population as a whole, in statements such as "one would never send one's children to a comprehensive school".

Answer 1

As the head of a nation a monarch can never enjoy the luxury of being seen to be thinking in the first person singular ('I'); so uses the third person singular ('one') to convey a community mentality.

Your suspicions are indeed well founded sir!

Others who use it ARE pretentious a r s e s!!!

Answer 2

I disagree. However, I do agree that the "he or she" structure is awfully pretentious. It is actually correct in English (and most western Indo-European languages) to use "he" when gender is unspecified, although this is rarely done for fear of sounding "sexist." For this reason, "they" is often substituted as it is a pronoun of neutral gender. I generally cite the use of "they" as a third person singular pronoun as a prime example of how the English language is evolving today, based on the communicative needs of its speakers to sound "politically correct." Although it is my belief that correctness is emphasized far too much by our culture, as language is about being understood, not being grammatically correct, I also believe that there is a medium that demands the usage of grammatically correct language, and the SAT constitutes a part of that medium. As an aside, I personally abhor Shakespeare. While I cannot deny that he was a master of the English language, I think his plays are entirely unoriginal and lack even the semblance of profundity. This is to say that they are hardly the epitome of good writing. I've come to view Goethe as perhaps the greatest literary genius in history, and Goethe would never make a mistake like this. I would echo the sentiment that Shakespeare is by no means an authority on formal writing.

Answer 3

I don't think it's a missuse, 'one' can be used quite a lot to replace other words like I, He, She, They... In some cases it gives a more direct and formal meaning to the reader.

A person is one person or a 'being' so I guess we can refer to ourselves as 'one'. The word anyone (Any One) kind of supports the use of one as I. At the end of the day it's only the British that really use it and it sounds archaic and pretentious and if anyone but the Queen and co use it they are labelled as being arrogant and snooty.

As for where it came from, probably developed over time maybe back to the Norman invasion??? The English language changed a fair bit then.

Answer 4

It is not pretentious snobbery at all, it is the proper and correct use of the language.
The use of words such as "you" or "yer" in its place, though generally more widely used, are indeed the incorrect forms.
e.g. Yer shouldn't drink in the mornings

Answer 5

Actually, people normally use "you" in the place of "one". Basically, she is using "one" as a non-direct pronoun, if she were to say "I" she would mean that she in particular doesn't generally have a drink before breakfast. If she were to use, "you" then she would mean (all) the reader(s)/listener(s) in particular doesn't generally have a drink before breakfast. "One" is a way indicating the reader/listener is only included if the statement pertains to them. It is used quite often in formal writing.

Answer 6

"Twas I" said the Cheshire cat stirring his porridge with a rumpsible spoon.

Truly I have no idea although I did think it must be a royal prerogative to show that they were once removed from the proletariat.

Answer 7

Sorry one hasn`t got the foggiest .

Answer 8

if you're gonna start talking about grammar, probably best not to open with " first started..."