mecum
Latin
Etymology
Univerbation of mē (“me”) + cum (“with”).
Two, not necessarily mutually exclusive explanations have been offered:
The first explanation was offered by Cicero, who believed that the normal word order of cum nōbīs "with us" would sound too much like cunnō bīs "twice in the cunt", so the words were reversed. This reversal was then applied to cum vōbīs, cum mē, cum tē, and cum sē.
A modern explanation is that the word ordering comes from the fact that in Proto-Indo-European the word *ḱóm (whence cum derives) was an adverb, not a preposition as it became in Latin. As such the *ḱóm could appear before or after the object pronoun since it was the object of the verb, not the object of a preposition. As these special particles evolved into prepositions this word order became archaic even though it was still commonly used. Thus the contraction nōbīscum (and mēcum, etc.) evolved into an adverb in its own right.
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈmeː.kum/, [ˈmeːkʊ̃ˑ]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈme.kum/, [ˈmɛːkum]
Adverb
mēcum (not comparable)
- with me
- Indignabar mecum.
- I resented with myself.
- Vade mecum.
- Go with me.
- Dii mecum militant.
- The gods are in favor with me.