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Origin and history of me

me(pron.)

a pronoun of the first person in oblique cases, Old English me (dative), me, mec (accusative); oblique cases of I, from Proto-Germanic *meke (accusative), *mes (dative), source also of Old Frisian mi/mir, Old Saxon mi, Middle Dutch mi, Dutch mij, Old High German mih/mir, German mich/mir, Old Norse mik/mer, Gothic mik/mis; from PIE root *me-, oblique form of the personal pronoun of the first person singular (nominative *eg; see I); source also of Sanskrit, Avestan mam, Greek eme, Latin me, mihi, Old Irish me, Welsh mi "me," Old Church Slavonic me, Hittite ammuk.

Erroneous or vulgar use for nominative (such as it is me) is attested from c. 1500. The dative is preserved in obsolete meseems, methinks and expressions such as sing me a song ("dative of interest"). Reflexively, "myself, for myself, to myself" from late Old English. The expression me too indicating the speaker shares another person's experience or opinion, or that the speaker wants the same as another is getting, is attested by 1745. In the 1880s it was a derisive nickname of U.S. politician Thomas C. Platt of New York, implying that he was a mere echo and puppet of fellow U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling, and in mid-20c. it often was a derogatory term, especially in U.S. politics (me-too-ism).

The political "me-too-ism," abjectly displayed by the "conservatives" of today toward their brazenly socialistic adversaries, is only the result and the feeble reflection of the ethical "me-too-ism" displayed by the philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, by the alleged champions of reason, toward the Witch Doctors of morality. [Ayn Rand, "For the New Intellectual," 1961]

The #MeToo movement calling attention to and opposing sexual harassment and assault, became prominent in October 2017.

Entries linking to me

I(pron.)

12c., a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *ek (source also of Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik), from PIE *eg- "I," nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (source also of Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source of French je), Greek ego, Russian ja, Lithuanian aš).

Reduced to i by mid-12c. in northern England, later everywhere; the form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c. 1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. It began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.

The reason for writing I is ... the orthographic habit in the middle ages of using a 'long i' (that is, j or I) whenever the letter was isolated or formed the last letter of a group; the numeral 'one' was written j or I (and three iij, etc.), just as much as the pronoun. [Otto Jespersen, "Growth and Structure of the English Language," p.233]

The dot on the "small" letter -i- began to appear in 11c. Latin manuscripts to distinguish the letter from the stroke of another letter (such as -m- or -n-). Originally a diacritic, it was reduced to a dot with the introduction of Roman type fonts. The letter -y- also was written with a top dot in Old English and early Middle English, during the centuries when it tended to be written with a closed loop at the top and thus was almost indistinguishable from the lower-case thorn (þ). In names of U.S. highways (by 1966) it is short for Interstate (adj.).

meseems(v.)

"it seems to me," late 14c., me semeth, from me (pron.), dative of I, + seem (v.). Archaic. Compare methinks.

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Trends of me

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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methinks

"it appears to me" (now archaic or poetic only), from Old English me þyncð "it seems to me," from me (pron.), dative of I, + þyncð, third person singular of þyncan "to seem," reflecting the Old English distinction between þyncan "to seem" and related þencan "to think," which bede

mine

Old English min "mine, my," (pronoun and adjective), from Proto-Germanic *minaz (source also of Old Frisian, Old Saxon Old High German min, Middle Dutch, Dutch mijn, German mein, Old Norse minn, Gothic meins "my, mine"), from the base of me. As an adjective, "belonging to me," pr

stroppy

from a letter: Why Nobby should reckon that his raggie should blow the gaff, when there are crushers everywhere, leaves me...In the last dog he rounded on me and called me a white rat....

commode

I wash'd and patch'd, to make me look provoking, Snares that they told me wou'd catch the men; And...on my head a huge commode sat cocking, Which made me shew as Tall agen: [from a song in "Wit and Mirth...

crisscross

The mark itself stood for the phrase Christ-cross me speed ('May Christ's cross give me success'), a formula said before...How long agoo lerned ye, 'Crist crosse me spede!'...

momma

I once happened to call a young negro wench momma— "me be no momma," says she, "me had no children yet."...

cosmology

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars—on stars where no human race is....I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places....

Portland

peninsula on the coast of Dorsetshire, literally "land surrounding a harbor," Old English Portlanda; see port (n.1) + land (n.). The city in Maine, U.S.A., took its name in 1786 for the place in England. Portland, Oregon, was said to have been named for the city in Maine, which w

anime

c. 1985, Japanese for "animation," a word that seems to have arisen in Japan in the 1970s, said in Japanese sources to be an abbreviation of English animation. Manga (q.v.) is Japanese for "comic book, graphic novel," but anime largely are based on manga and until 1970s, anime we

Maine

U.S. state, probably ultimately from French Maine, region in France (named for the river that runs through it, which has a name of Gaulish origin). The name was applied to that part of coastal North America by French explorers. The Maine law in late 19c.-early 20c. prohibitionist

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