me

Forms

me (first person singular, stressed form; also the unstressed form of mi before lo, la, li, le and ne)^[3][4] Central and southern Italian has the form mene.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mē (“me”), the accusative and ablative of Latin ego (“I”).^[6][5][7][2] The word is panromance: French moi, Romansh mai, Occitan me, Catalan me, Sardinian me and Romanian mine continue it.^[5] The Latin pronoun had an Old Latin form mēd, found in the Duenos inscription and in Plautus and Ennius.^[8] Nocentini sees in its final ⟨-d⟩ a strengthening particle, a pattern repeated in central and southern Italian ⟨mene⟩ and in the Romanian word.^[5]

De Vaan derives the accusative from Proto-Indo-European *h₁mé, whose long vowel arose in the stressed form.^[8] Related forms are Ancient Greek ἐμέ (emé) and με (me), Old Church Slavonic мѧ (mę), and, with an added particle, Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌺 (mik) and German mich.^[8][5][2] Devoto calls it a word of the compact Indo-European vocabulary, attested in most branches.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294.^[6][5][7] Sabatini–Coletti dates the word to the 11th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning me was the stressed object form beside unstressed mi, and Tommaseo notes that before lo, li, la, le and ne only me is used, quoting Boccaccio's me la traggo (“I take it off”).^[11] Exclamations grew from it: the Novellino has ahimè, Dante and Boccaccio oimè, and the plural noun omei “laments” is found in early poetry.^[12] The combination meco “with me”, from Latin mēcum, is recorded from 1173.^[5]

Used as a subject, as in jocular il padrone sono me, me copies dialect usage, especially northern.^[4][13] Dante's “da me stesso non vegno” (I do not come of myself, Inferno 10) shows the reinforcement with stesso that is still current.^[4][14]

Timeline

• 11th century – Sabatini–Coletti's date for the word.^[10]
• 1173 – Meco “with me” is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses me.^[6][5]
• Before 1321 – Dante writes oimè.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. me, the stressed form, as a direct object when it is emphasized or contrasted: volevano me, non mia sorella.^[7][3][10]
2. After a preposition: vieni a cena da me, hanno parlato male di me.^[7][3][13]
3. In exclamations, in comparisons after come and quanto, and after essere or sembrare when the subject is not io: povero me!, è alto quanto me.^[7][10][4]
4. The unstressed form of mi before lo, la, li, le and ne: me lo presti?, non me ne importa.^[3][11]
5. (jocular, regional) As a subject, in place of io.^[7][4]

Word family

• meco

Related words

• mi
• io
• mio
• te
• ahimè
• Latin ego
• French moi

Usage notes

Common phrases are da me (by myself, without help), per me and secondo me (in my opinion), quanto a me (as for me) and tra me e me (to myself, inwardly).^[13][3][4] The forget-me-not is non ti scordar di me.^[7] The stressed form has a closed /e/ and causes doubling of the following consonant in Tuscan (a me piace [ammepˈpjatʃe]), while the unstressed form does not.^[3][10][1] Wiktionary notes a capitalized Me for God or another revered figure understood from context.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Canepari, Luciano, DiPI: Dizionario di pronuncia italiana, online ed., dipionline.it
2. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 275
10. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 648
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli