me

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English me,^[2][3] inherited from Old English mē, the accusative and dative of I.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Old English also had an accusative mec, which did not survive into Middle English.^[9] The two cases go back to separate Proto-Germanic forms: dative Proto-Germanic *miz,^[1][10] which Etymonline writes *mes and Orel *mez,^[5][11] and accusative *meke.^[5][4][11] The cognates include Old Frisian mi, Old Saxon mī, Dutch mij, Old High German mih and mir, whence German mich and mir, Old Norse mik and mér, and others.^[4][5][9] All continue the oblique stem Proto-Indo-European *me- of the Indo-European pronoun of the first person,^{[5][2][12][9]} seen also in Latin mē, Ancient Greek ἐμέ (emé) and με (me), Old Irish mé, Welsh mi and Hittite ammuk.^{[9][4][5][13]} The Germanic accusative adds a limiting particle to the stem, as in Proto-Indo-European *mege and Ancient Greek ἐμέγε (emége).^[6][4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The speaker as direct object of a verb, and as indirect object: in the earliest Old English, about 650 according to Barnhart, with the OED's first quotations from the Vespasian Psalter and the Old English translation of Bede.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

A weak unstressed form probably existed from early times; in Middle English it tended to fall together with the weak form of my, and the first element of myself, originally me, was reassigned to my partly as a result.^[9] The old dative survives in methinks and meseems, and in expressions such as sing me a song.^[5][8] Reflexive use, "myself" or "for myself", goes back to Old English, and is now archaic except in colloquial and regional American use.^[9][5][13] Johnson (1755) called the empty me of "he thrusts me himself into the company" a ludicrous expletive.^[14] As a subject, standing for I, me is recorded by the OED with another noun or pronoun from 1380, and alone from about 1380;^[9] Etymonline dates it is me to about 1500,^[5] and Dictionary.com says that objective pronouns began to replace subjective ones after be some 400 years ago.^[3] The phrase me too is recorded by 1745, and me-too-ism became a political insult in mid-20th-century America.^[5] In American slang from 1922 a noun could be followed by me as a command, as butt me, give me a cigarette,^[15] and final emphatic me is recorded in Green's from 1959.^[15] Collins records the real me, one's own personality, and the Me generation of the 1970s.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 650 – object form of I.^[4]
• Old English – reflexive use, for myself.^[9][5]
• 1380 – as a subject, joined with another noun or pronoun.^[9]
• c. 1500 – it is me, after the verb be.^[5]
• 1745 – me too.^[5]
• 1922 – in American slang, after a noun, a request: butt me, give me a cigarette.^[15]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. The speaker or writer as the direct object of a verb: The dog followed me home.^[2][16][9]
2. The same as indirect object: She lent me her umbrella.^[2][16][8]
3. The same as object of a preposition: The parcel is for me.^[2][9]
4. Informally, after be and in short answers, in place of I: It's me.^[2][3]
5. In dialect or nonstandard use, myself or for myself: I got me a new hat.^{[2][16][17][9]}
6. (archaic) As a vague object showing the speaker's interest, the ethic dative.^[8][14][17]

Noun

1. Informally, the personality of the speaker or writer, or what expresses it: The real me enjoys quiet evenings.^[16]

Adjective

1. Used for my, probably from its unstressed form.^[13][9]

Related words

• meseems
• methinks
• I
• mine
• my
• myself

Usage notes

Dictionary.com notes the traditional rule that the subjective form follows be, but says that It's me is now almost universal in speech, while formal speech and edited writing keep the subjective pronoun.^[3] As the name of a musical note, me is a British variant of mi, recorded from 1755 by Merriam-Webster;^[8] the Oxford Dictionary of English takes the note's name from late Middle English mi, an arbitrary name from the first syllable of a word in a Latin hymn.^[7][6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)