me

From Middle English me, from Old English mē (“me”, originally dative, but later also accusative), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀ, from Proto-Germanic *miz (“me”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁me- (“me”).

• (UK) enPR: mē, IPA^(key): /miː/
• (US) enPR: mē, IPA^(key): /mi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː
• Homophone: mee

me (first-person singular pronoun, referring to the speaker)

1. As the direct object of a verb.

   Can you hear me?

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 86:17:

     Shew me a token foꝛ good, that they which hate me may ſee it, and bee aſhamed: becauſe thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comfoꝛted me.

2. (archaic, proscribed) Myself; as a reflexive direct object of a verb.
   • 1819, John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci:

     And I awoke, and found me here.

3. As the object of a preposition.

   Come with me.

4. As the indirect object of a verb.

   He gave me this.

5. (US, colloquial, proscribed) Myself; as a reflexive indirect object of a verb; the ethical dative.
   • 1993 April 1, Harper's Magazine:

     When I get to college, I'm gonna get me a white Nissan Sentra.

6. As the complement of the copula (be or is).

   It wasn't me.

   • 2017, Theresa May, “Andrew Neil interviews Theresa May: full transcript”, in The Spectator‎, archived from the original on 22 May 2017:

     It's either me or Jeremy Corbyn.

7. (informal, with and, often proscribed) As the subject of a verb.

   Me and my friends played a game.

8. (nonstandard, not with and) As the subject of a verb.
   • 1844, Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, volume II:

     One of them, whose sobriquet was Big-headed Blackboy, was stretched out before the fire, and no answer could be obtained from him, but a drawling repetition, in grunts of displeasure, of "Bel (not) me want to go.

   • 2005, Michael Chapman & Matthew Chapman, Teen Girl Squad (Homestar Runner), number 10:

     Strong Bad: Me gotta see that again.

Me is traditionally described as the accusative pronoun, meaning it should be used as the object of verbs and prepositions, while the nominative pronoun I should be used as the subject of verbs. However, "accusative" pronouns are widely used as the subject of verbs in colloquial speech if they are accompanied by and, for example, "me and her are friends". This usage is traditionally considered incorrect, and "she and I are friends" would be the preferred construction.

Using me as the lone subject (without and) of a verb (e.g. "me want", "me like") is a feature of various types of both pidgin English and that of infant English-learners, and is sometimes used by speakers of standard English for jocular effect (e.g. "me likee", "me wantee").

Although in the spoken version of some dialects 'me' is commonly used as a possessive, in writing, speakers of these dialects usually write my.

Some prescriptivists object to the use of me following the verb be, as in "It wasn’t me". The phrase "It was not I" is considered to be correct, though this may be seen as extreme and used for jocular effect.

• (subject of a verb): I; my ass (vulgar)
• (complement of the copula): I
• (indirect object): us (Australia, UK)
• (marking ownership): my; mine (archaic)

• believe you me
• Mii

• meseems
• methinks

• Bislama: mi
• Jamaican Creole: mi
• Nigerian Pidgin: mi
• Pijin: mi
• Sranan Tongo: mi

Variant form.

me

1. (UK regional, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) Alternative form of my
   • a. 1918, Wilfred Owen, “The Letter”, in Douglas Kerr, editor, The Works of Wilfred Owen, page 54:

     There don't seem much to say just now. / (Yer what? Then don't, yer ruddy cow! / And give us back me cigarette!)

   • 1994, John Hodge, Shallow Grave, spoken by Alex Law (Ewan McGregor):

     I want me money back!

   • 1995, Nick Park, A Close Shave:

     Get off me cheese! Get off! Get off!

   • 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, page 99:

     "What have I ever done to prove me worth, or where I could at least say as I'd made a difference?"

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

me

1. (music) The solfeggio syllable used to indicate the flat of the third note of a major scale.

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin,

• 'em, EM, Em, em, em-

me

1. I

• IPA^(key): [mɛ]

From Proto-Albanian *me(t). Cognate to Ancient Greek μετά (metá, “after, beyond; in the middle, between”), Gothic miþ (“with”), Old Norse með.

me (+accusative)

1. with (accompanied by)

   Shkoj me tim vëlla.

   I'm going with my brother.

2. with (possessing)

   E sheh djalin me sytë e kaltër?

   Do you see the guy with blue eyes?

3. with (by means of)

   Preferoj të shkruaj me penë.

   I prefer to write with a pen.

From Proto-Indo-European *manu, compare Ancient Greek μανός (manós, “thin”), Old Armenian մանր (manr, “small”). Alternatively it could represent a continuation of Proto-Indo-European *mṇi̯ō, to be compared with Latin minuō (“lessen”), Proto-Slavic *mьnь (“smaller”) and the like.

me m (feminine mee)

1. insufficient, scanty, not full

• ma, mai, mei, mey, mi

Inherited from Romani me.

• IPA^(key): [meɪ]

me

1. I

   Synonyms: mandi, tutti

From Portuguese mãe (“mother”).

me

1. mother

• 2005, John H. McWhorter, Defining Creole

From Latin me. Akin to Spanish me and French me.

me

1. me (first-person singular direct pronoun)
2. (to) me (first-person singular indirect pronoun)

• m' (before a vowel)

From Latin mē, accusative singular of ego. As an indirect pronoun, possibly in part from Latin mihi (dative singular of ego), through a Vulgar Latin *mi.

me

1. me (first-person singular direct pronoun)
2. me (first-person singular indirect pronoun)

• mai
• mei

From English [Term?] (“May”).

• IPA^(key): /me/

me (Bengali script মে)

1. May

• jetja

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary. Stated in Appendix 5.

From Proto-Brythonic *mi, from Proto-Celtic *mī, from Proto-Indo-European *me (“me”). Cognate to Welsh mi.

me

1. I, me

me

1. and

From Latin mē (accusative of ego).

me (enclitic, contracted 'm, proclitic em, contracted proclitic m')

1. me (direct or indirect object)

• -me is the full (plena) form of the pronoun. It is normally used after verbs ending with a consonant or ⟨u⟩, or between some adverbs/pronouns and a verb. In some varieties of Catalan (Balearic/Valencian) it can also occur in sentence-initial position.

  Segueix-me! ― Follow me!

  Tant me fa. (after adverb) ― I don't care.

  Me sembla que… (sentence-initial, nonstandard) ― It seems that…

me

1. and

me

1. from

me

1. (Sette Comuni) the; definite article for two declensions:
   1. dative singular masculine
   2. dative singular neuter

• “me” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

• my (Standard Cornish, Standard Written Form)

me

1. (Standard Cornish) I, me

• IPA^(key): /mə/

• Audio

  (file)

me

1. objective unstressed form of ik (“I”)

• mij

me (dependent possessive)

1. Pronunciation spelling of mijn (“my”).

Short form of meie, from Proto-Finnic *mek.

me (genitive me, partitive meid)

1. we

From Old Galician-Portuguese me, from Latin mē.

me

1. First person singular dative and accusative pronoun; me

• Takes the form -mi when suffixed to an impersonal verb form.

• Valeš, Miroslav (2021) Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu [Fala Dictionary]‎, CIDLeS, →ISBN, page 197

From Proto-Finnic *mek, from Proto-Uralic *me. The word is inflected as plural, but there is no plural marker in the nominative, except in dialects (met).

• IPA^(key): /ˈme/, [ˈme̞]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification^(key): me

me

1. we

• Although usually omitted in written language (the verb shows both the person and the number), the pronoun is in spoken language used very often (compare the usage of minä (“I”)).

• Irregular (inflectional stem mei-, as if in the plural). The comitative and instructive forms don't exist; the abessive is hardly used.
• In addition to the standard set of cases, me and the other personal pronouns have a specific accusative form, meidät.

• met (dialectal)
• myö (dialectal)

• me-henki

• Kven: met

• em.

From Middle French me, from Old French me, from Latin mē (accusative of ego), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁me- (“me”). Northern dialects have preserved a form mi for the indirect object (also found in Old French in the Oaths of Strasbourg), from Latin mihi, dative singular of ego, through a Vulgar Latin *mi, whereas in standard French, it has merged into me.

• IPA^(key): /mə/
• (Parisian) IPA^(key): /mø/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ə

me (personal, objective case)

1. (direct object) me

   Est-ce que tu me vois ? ― Do you see me?

2. (indirect object) to me

   Émilien me donne un peu d'argent. ― Émilien gave some money to me.

• “me”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

me

1. inflection of eu:
   1. accusative/dative
   2. reflexive

me

1. male
2. husband

From French mai (“May”).

me

1. May

me

1. with

• IPA^(key): /mɛː/
• Rhymes: -ɛː

me

1. baa (representing the bleating sound sheep make)

From English me, French me, Italian me, Spanish me, from Proto-Indo-European *(e)me-, *(e)me-n- (“me”).

• IPA^(key): /me/, /mɛ/

me (first-person singular)

1. I, me

   Me es tre felica.

   I am very happy.

   Ka vu parolas a me?

   Are you talking to me?

• mea (“my, mine”)

me (plural me-i)

1. The name of the Latin script letter M/m.

• (Latin script letter names) litero; a, be, ce, che, de, e, fe, ge, he, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, pe, que, re, se, she, te, u, ve, we, xe, ye, ze ^{(Category: io:Latin letter names)}

From Latin mē, accusative singular of ego.

me

1. objective of i; me; to me
   • 1877, Antonio Ive, Canti popolari istriani: raccolti a Rovigno, volume 5, Ermanno Loescher, page 40:

     Ti me pari oûna dea infra li dai,

     You seem to me a goddess among the gods,

From Latin mē.

• (standard, clitic) IPA^(key): /me/^°
  • Hyphenation: me
• (standard, disjunctive) IPA^(key): /ˈme/^*
  • Rhymes: -e
  • Hyphenation: mé
• As a clitic pronoun used before another clitic, it is pronounced unstressed and without syntactic gemination of the following consonant, e.g. me ne vado (“I'm going away”) /me ne ˈvado/. As a disjunctive pronoun used after a preposition, it is pronounced stressed and with syntactic gemination, e.g. a me piace (“I like him/her/it”) /a‿mˌme‿pˈpjatʃe/ (since a also triggers syntactic gemination).

me (personal, objective case)

1. (disjunctive, emphatic) me

   (Lui/Lei) non piace a me. / A me non piace (lui/lei). ― (He/She) does not appeal to me, i.e. I don't like him/her.

   (Lui/Lei) piace a me. / A me piace (lui/lei). ― (He/She) appeals to me, i.e. I like him/her.

   A me e lui piace lei. ― She appeals (both) to me and to him, i.e. he and I (both) like her.

me

1. (clitic) Alternative form of mi

• Used when followed by a third-person direct object clitic (lo, la, li, le, or ne).

me

1. Alternative spelling of mi.

me

1. Rōmaji transcription of め (hiragana)
2. Rōmaji transcription of メ (katakana)

Borrowed from Burmese မဲ (mai:, “mai:”).

me

1. ballot

• Kurabe, Keita (2016-12-31), “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research‎, volume 35, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 91–128

me

1. louse

• Johannes A. Z'Graggen, The Madang-Adelbert Range Sub-Phylum (1975) (as mɛ)
• Bemal Organized Phonology Data (as me)

• mēd (Early Latin)

From Proto-Indo-European *h₁me- (“me”). Cognate with Ancient Greek με (me), ἐμέ (emé, “me”), Sanskrit मा (mā, “me”), Old English me, Old Frisian mi, Old Saxon mī, Dutch mij, Old High German mih (German mich), Old Norse mik, Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌺 (mik). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latin me, Greek με (me), Old Irish mé (Irish mí, Welsh mi), Proto-Slavic *mene (Old Church Slavonic мене (mene), Russian меня́ (menjá)), Lithuanian mi, Albanian mua.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /meː/, [meː]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /me/, [mɛː]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

mē (personal pronoun)

1. me, myself; accusative singular of ego
2. by me, with me, from me; ablative singular of ego

• mēcum, mēmet

• me in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• me in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

• IPA^(key): [mɯ³³]

From Proto-Loloish *ʔ-mwe³ (Bradley), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan. Cognate with Sichuan Yi ꂯ (mix), Burmese အမွေး (a.mwe:), Drung meul (“body hair”), Jingpho mun, Tedim Chin mul¹.

me 

1. (Yao'an) body hair

From Proto-Loloish *s-mo¹ (Bradley). Cognate with Sichuan Yi ꂥ (hmu), Burmese မှို (hmui), Gong มู๋, Naxi mul, Japhug tɤ jmɤɣ and Jingpho kämu.

me 

1. (Yao'an) mushroom

me (me⁵／me⁰, Zhuyin ˙ㄇㄜ)

1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 么
2. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 嚜
3. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 末
4. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 麼／么, 麽／么
5. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 嚒

me

1. Nonstandard spelling of mē.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

me

1. Conjunctive
   1. and (joins two noun phrases)
   2. with (indicates people or things present when an event occurs)
2. Definitive
   1. must, should (used before verbs to form a weak command)
   2. must be (used before nouns and adjectives)

      Me whā rawa?

      Must it be four?

   3. how should it be done (used before pēhea and a clause)
3. Comparative
   1. if only (reverses what is stated)
   2. as if, like (simile)
   3. to see whether

• "me" - Maori Dictionary

From French mai.

me

1. May

me

1. husband

me

1. (drinkable) water
2. any liquid
3. (non-tidal) stream, river

• F. Madden, Mengen Dictionary (2006)
• Dan Rath, Mengen Dialect Survey (1991) (me, mee)

From Old English mē, from Proto-Indo-European. More at English me.

• IPA^(key): /meː/
• Rhymes: -eː

me (nominative I)

1. me (first-person singular accusative pronoun)
2. (reflexive) myself

• English: me
• Scots: me
• Yola: mee, me

• “me, pron.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 6 May 2018.

me (nominative I)

1. Alternative form of mi.

• “min, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 6 May 2018.

From man, men, by way of phonemic reduction in unstressed positions.

me

1. Typically singular, indefinite pronoun: one, you (indefinite).

• man
• ei

• “me, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 June 2018.

• m' (before a vowel)

From Old French me.

me

1. me, first-person singular object pronoun
2. to me, first-person singular indirect object pronoun

• (first-person singular object and indirect object pronoun): moy (with verbs in the imperative)

• French: me

me

1. son
2. child

me

1. and

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma.

me

1. not

• Naxi Dictionary by T.M. Pinson, Lijiang 2012

• mme, m', mm'

From Latin mē.

• IPA^(key): /me/
• Rhymes: -e

me

1. me (accusative or dative or reflexive or prepositional)

• mé (continental Normandy, Jersey)
• maïr (Guernsey)

me f (plural mes)

1. (Sark) sea

me

1. First-person singular, objective: me

me

1. oblique form of em: us, we

me

1. first-person singular present indicative of bûn

   Synonym: im

• IPA^(key): /mə/

me

1. fire

From Old Norse mit, a form of vit (“we two, the both of us”) influenced by the final -m in Old Norse verbs inflected in the first person plural.

• IPA^(key): /meː/
• Rhymes: -eː
• Homophone: med

me (object case oss)

1. we

   Kva skal me gjera?

   What shall we do?

• vi

me

1. eye dialect spelling of meg (“me”)
   • 1879, Berg, Hallvard, Segner fraa Bygdom, Christiania: Samlaget, page 93:

     "No, Unga, kunne de slutte mæ Lesnae ei Stund o høyre paa me."

     "Now, kids, you stop with the reading for a while and listen to me."

• “me” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• EM

From Proto-West Germanic *miʀ.

• IPA^(key): /meː/

mē

1. (personal) accusative/dative of iċ

• Was originally only dative/instrumental, but by the literary period is also the accusative form in West Saxon. The Anglian dialects have retained the inherited accusative form, mec.

• Middle English: me
  • English: me
  • Scots: me

From Latin mē, accusative of ego. As an indirect object pronoun, possibly in part from Latin mihi, dative singular of ego, through a Vulgar Latin *mi (compare the form mi in particular, found in early Old French in the Oaths of Strasbourg).

me

1. myself (first-person singular reflexive pronoun)
2. me (first-person singular direct object pronoun)
3. to me (first-person singular indirect object pronoun)

• moi/mei

• Middle French: me
  • French: me

me

1. enclitic genitive/dative/instrumental/ablative singular of ahaṃ

Compare German einem.

• IPA^(key): /mə/

me m or n (indefinite)

1. a, an

• IPA^(key): /mɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Syllabification: me

me

1. Alternative form of moje

me

1. (onomatopoeia) Used to imitate the sound of a sheep or ram, baa

   Synonym: be

From Old Galician-Portuguese me, from Latin mē (accusative of ego), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)me-. As an objective indirect pronoun, possibly in part from Latin mihi (dative of ego), through a Vulgar Latin *mi.

• Hyphenation: me

me

1. first-person singular objective direct personal pronoun; me
   • 2005, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter e o Enigma do Príncipe [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince] (Harry Potter; 6), Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, →ISBN, page 228:

     Você está me chamando de maluco?

     Are you calling me crazy?

   Meus amigos me ligaram.

   My friends called me.

2. first-person singular objective indirect personal pronoun; (to) me

   Dê-me o copo.

   Give me the glass.

3. first-person singular reflexive pronoun; myself

   Este tipo de tratamento me faz querer me enforcar.

   This kind of treatment makes me want to hang myself.

4. particle of spontaneity, when it indicates that there was spontaneity in the action by its agent.

   Fui-me embora daquele lugar.

   I left that place..

For quotations using this term, see Citations:me.