egomet

Forms

egomet personal pronoun, emphatic form of ego^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ego (“I”) + -met (“self”).^[1] The OLD calls the origin of the emphatic particle ⟨-met⟩ doubtful;^[2] Wiktionary tentatively traces it to Proto-Indo-European *me and *-ti.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on: in the Amphitruo a character says he beat himself, egomet mēmet.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The particle ⟨-met⟩ was attached to personal pronouns for emphasis (nōsmet, mēmet, mihimet), though poets sometimes added it for the metre with little emphasis.^[2][5] Egomet means “I myself”;^[1][2] Cicero uses it with ipse, and Virgil has vīdī egomet, “I saw it myself”.^[2][5] Church Latin kept it as an emphatic form of ego.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses egomet in the Amphitruo.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses the related nōsmet.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes ipse egomet.^[5][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil writes vīdī egomet in the Aeneid.^[2][4]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. I myself; an emphatic form of ego.^[2][1][3]

Related words

• -met

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften