myself
See also: Myself
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English myself, meself, from Old English mē selfum and similar phrases, equivalent to me + self, later partly reinterpreted as my + self / -self. Cognate with Scots mysel, mysell (“myself”), West Frisian mysels (“myself”), Dutch mijzelf (“myself”), German mich selbst, mir selbst (“myself”), Norwegian Bokmål meg selv (“myself”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (stressed) IPA(key): /maɪˈsɛlf/
Audio (UK): (file) Audio (US): (file) - (unstressed) IPA(key): /məˈsɛlf/
- Hyphenation: my‧self
- Rhymes: -ɛlf
Pronoun
[edit]myself (reflexive case of I)
- (reflexive pronoun) Me, as direct or indirect object the speaker as the object of a verb or preposition, when the speaker is also the subject. [from 9th c.]
- I taught myself.
- (I) don’t think much of his new car, myself.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”
- Personally, for my part; used in apposition to I, sometimes for simple emphasis and sometimes with implicit exclusion of any others performing the activity described. [from 10th c.]
- In my normal state of body or mind.
- Me (as the object of a verb or preposition). [from 10th c.]
- I feel like myself.
- (archaic) I (as the subject of a verb). [from 14th c.]
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- And my selfe have knowen a Gentleman, a chiefe officer of our crowne, that by right and hope of succession (had he lived unto it) was to inherit above fifty thousand crownes a yeere good land […].
- 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged:
- Myself am confident that an ointment of it is one of the best remedies for a scabby head that is.
- (India, Pakistan, nonstandard) my name is...
- Myself John.
Usage notes
[edit]- Use where I could be used is mostly poetic or archaic, except with a coordinating conjunction, such as and.
- Garner's Modern American Usage (2009) reports opposition to the intensifier use, especially where I could be used.
- AP Stylebook Online (2010) reports opposition to the intensifier use as reflexive pronouns (like myself) should not be used instead of objective pronouns (like me).
Synonyms
[edit]- (reflexive pronoun): me
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]me, reflexive form of me
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in apposition with I; personally
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See also
[edit]|
Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics. 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronouns. |
Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old English mē self, mē seolf, equivalent to my + self.
Pronunciation
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]myself
Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “mī-self, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -self
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛlf
- Rhymes:English/ɛlf/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English pronouns
- English reflexive pronouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with archaic senses
- Indian English
- Pakistani English
- English nonstandard terms
- English first person pronouns
- English intensifiers
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English compound terms
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English pronouns