mi Italian · revision 37447

+ {{homograph|1|unstressed pronoun “me”}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=late 12th century, Ritmo laurenziano|origins=la mē, la mihi}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /mi/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''mi''' (first person, objective case)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The pronoun is [[inh|la|mē|t=me]] and [[la|mihi|t=to me]], whose shortened form [[m|la|mī]] was also used.^(DELI 1999)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011) The sources weigh the two differently: Nocentini sees Italian “mi” as the continuation of the dative “mihi”, which absorbed the accusative, the reverse of what happened in French and Spanish, where the accusative “mē” absorbed the dative;^(Nocentini 2010) Wiktionary derives it from “mē” and only in part, as an indirect object, from “mihi”;^(Wiktionary) DEI gives “mē” alone.^(DEI|2449) The same outcome is [[sc|mi]] and [[ro|mie]].^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ The Latin accusative goes back to [[ine-pro|*h₁mé]], the accusative of the first-person pronoun, and the dative to [[m|ine-pro|*h₁méǵʰyo]], as Umbrian [[m|xum|mehe|t=to me]] shows.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Related forms are [[grc|με|tr=me]], [[got|𐌼𐌹𐌺|tr=mik]] and [[cu|мѧ|tr=mę]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first record is in the Ritmo laurenziano at the end of the 12th century, with the dative sense “to me”.^(DELI 1999) Nocentini dates the pronoun to the first half of the 13th century,^(Nocentini 2010) and the accusative “me” is recorded in the 14th century and very often in Dante.^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the early centuries ''mi'' could also be the stressed pronoun, as it still is in the northern dialects, where it corresponds to standard ''io'' and ''me''.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) Old Italian attached it to finite verbs, as in Dante's “Ruppemi l'alto sonno ne la testa / un greve truono” (a heavy thunder broke the deep sleep in my head, ''Inferno'' 4);^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) this placement (''dissemi'', ''veggomi'') is now out of use, and the pronoun follows only infinitives, gerunds, participles, imperatives and ''ecco''.^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ Colloquial Italian repeats it beside ''a me'' (''a me non mi piace''), a usage Tommaseo already illustrated with 16th-century comedies.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) It also serves as an ethical dative, expressing the speaker's involvement: ''stammi bene!'', “take care (for my sake)!”.^(Gabrielli 2020)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano has ''mi'' “to me”.^(DELI 1999)

+ * First half of the 13th century – Nocentini's date for the pronoun.^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 14th century – The accusative sense “me” is recorded.^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Pronoun===

+ # [[m|en|me]], as a direct object: ''Laura mi ha chiamato ieri sera''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # To me, for me, as an indirect object: ''mi porti il giornale?''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+ # In [[m|en|reflexive]] and pronominal verbs of the first person singular: ''mi alzo alle sette'', ''mi pento''.^(Treccani 2011)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(colloquial)'' As an ethical dative, showing the speaker's involvement: ''non mi fare arrabbiare''.^(Gabrielli 2020)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(colloquial)'' Repeating or anticipating ''a me'': ''a me questa idea mi convince poco''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ {{homograph|2|musical note}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=14th century, Antonio de' Carelli|origins=la mīrus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈmi/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''mi'''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The note is [[bor|la|mīrus|alt=mira|t=wonderful]], the first syllable of “Mira gestorum” (the wonders of [your] deeds), a half-line of the Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist attributed to Paul the Deacon.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) In the 11th century Guido of Arezzo used the hymn as a memory aid because each of its half-lines begins one step higher in the scale, and named the notes after their first syllables (see [[do]]).^(DELI 1999)^(Treccani 2011)^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first record is in the 14th century, in Antonio de' Carelli, as the third note of the scale of C.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense “tone, string or key that gives the note mi” is recorded by Petrocchi in 1891,^(DELI 1999) and the word also names a key, as in ''mi minore''.^(GRADIT 2003) The names of the notes were sung in sequence in solmization: Tommaseo quotes Allegri's “Con un confuso do, re, mi, fa, solle” (with a muddled do, re, mi, fa, sol), and an older series that began with ''ut''.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) The word passed into French as [[m|fr|mi]] and into German as [[m|de|Mi]] (1732).^(DIFIT)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 14th century – Antonio de' Carelli uses ''mi'' for the third note of the scale.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1541 – The note is named in Doni.^(DEI|2449)

+ * 1732 – German ''Mi'' is recorded.^(DIFIT)

+ * 1891 – Petrocchi records the sense “string or key of mi”.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(music)'' The third [[m|en|note]] of the scale of C major, [[m|en|E]]: ''il tenore ha attaccato su un mi acuto''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The string or key of an instrument that gives this note.^(GRADIT 2003)^(DELI 1999)

+ # The [[m|en|key]] whose tonic is this note: ''un concerto in mi maggiore''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[solmizzazione]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[io]]

+ * [[me]]

+ * [[mio]]

+ * [[do]]

+ * [[re]]

+ * [[fa]]

+ * [[sol]]

+ * [[la]]

+ * [[si]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Before the pronouns ''lo'', ''la'', ''li'', ''le'' and ''ne'' the pronoun takes the form ''me'', which always comes first, also when attached to the verb: ''me lo dai?'', ''dammelo''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) Nocentini explains this ''me'' as an assimilation to the vowel of the following pronoun.^(Nocentini 2010) After a one-syllable imperative the ''m'' is doubled: ''dammi'', ''dimmi'', ''fammi''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011) The pronoun is unstressed, while the musical note is stressed.^(Wiktionary)^(DiPI)

+

+ ''Mi'' (also ''mu'') is also the Italian name of the twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet, from [[grc|μῦ|tr=mû]], a letter of Phoenician origin, recorded in Italian from before 1565;^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)^(Gabrielli 2020) as a symbol it marks the millionth part of a unit and, in physics, magnetic permeability and the muon.^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}