me

me · pronoun, noun¹

1. Middle English · inherited fromme
2. Middle English · inherited fromme
3. English todayme

From Middle English me, from Old English mē (“me”, originally dative, but later also accusative, supplanting accusative mec), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀ, from Proto-Germanic *miz (“me”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁me- (“me”). Cognate with Scots me, North Frisian me, Saterland Frisian mie, Dutch me, mij, Low German mi, German mir (dative only), Icelandic mér (also still dative), Latin mē, Ancient Greek μέ (mé), ἐμέ (emé), Sanskrit मा (mā), all meaning “me”.

me · determiner²

A spelling representing the pronunciation (/miː/), which is the older pronunciation (see Middle English mi (“my”); Middle English me (“me”) was pronounced /meː/, similar to modern May); the Great Vowel Shift in the Middle Ages changed /iː/ to /aɪ/, but some dialects retained or reinnovated /iː/ in this word.

me · noun³

1. Latin · derived frommīra
2. Italian · derived frommi
3. English todayme

From mi (“third note of a major scale”) + -e (“flat”), from Glover's solmization, Italian mi in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin mīra in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

me · pronoun⁴

From Middle English me, an unstressed phonetic reduction of men, man (pronouns; q. v.). Compare German man (“one, you”, indefinite pronoun).

Words from the same roots