mí

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mihi (“to me, for me”), the dative of ego (“I”), in its everyday shortened form mī.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Its unstressed partner me comes from the Latin accusative mē; both forms are found from the earliest Old Spanish poetry on.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the hero greets a loyal vassal: Aún vea el día que de mí ayades algo “may I yet see the day when you have some reward from me”.^[6][3] The word is already the stressed form used after a preposition.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used mí after prepositions as the modern language does: Alfonso X's General estoria has entre mi & ti “between me and you”.^[7] Salvá described it in 1846 as the form taken after any preposition except con, which gives conmigo.^[8][4] Fixed phrases include ¡a mí!, a call for help, and a mí qué, “what do I care”.^[9][10] In Costa Rica ¡porta mí! expresses indifference.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has de mí.^[6][3]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria has entre mi & ti.^[7]
• 1846 – Salvá describes it as the form after any preposition except con.^[8]
• mid-20th century – rural Puerto Rican speech still uses mí where the standard has yo, as in entre tú y mí.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. me: the stressed form of the first-person singular pronoun, used after a preposition: Esa carta es para mí.^[4][9][1]

Related words

• yo
• me
• conmigo
• ti
• Latin ego

Usage notes

After con the form is conmigo, not con mí.^[10][4] Mí is always stressed; the unstressed object form is me.^[9][2] Rural speech in Puerto Rico kept an older use of mí and ti after entre and in pairs joined by y (entre tú y mí) into the mid-20th century.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 6, 779
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. yo
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. mí
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ego
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. mí
7. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. mí
8. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 716
9. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mí
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. mí
11. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mí
12. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. mí