From Middle Englishme, from Old Englishmē(“me”, originally dative, but later also accusative), from Proto-Germanic*miz(“me”), from Proto-Indo-European*h₁me-(“me”). Cognate with Scotsme(“me”), North Frisianme(“me”), Saterland Frisianmie(“me”), Dutchme, mij(“me”), Low Germanmi(“me”), Germanmir(“me”, dative), Icelandicmér(“me”, dative), Latinmē(“me”), Ancient Greekμέ(mé), ἐμέ(emé, “me”), Sanskritमा(mā, “me”).
Pronunciation
(UK) enPR: mē, IPA(key): /miː/
(US) enPR: mē, IPA(key): /mi/
Rhymes: -iː
Homophone: mee
Pronoun
me (first-person singular pronoun, referring to the speaker)
As the direct object of a verb.
(obsolete, proscribed) Myself; as a reflexive direct object of a verb.
As the object of a preposition.
As the indirect object of a verb.
(US, colloquial, proscribed) Myself; as a reflexive indirect object of a verb; the ethical dative.
As the complement of the copula (be or is).
(informal, with and, often proscribed)As the subject of a verb.
(nonstandard, not with and)As the subject of a verb.
Usage notes
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 to 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.
Synonyms
(subject of a verb):I; my ass (vulgar)
(complement of the copula):I
(indirect object):us(Australia, UK)
(marking ownership):my; mine (archaic)
Related terms
meseems
methinks
Derived terms
believe you me
Descendants
Jamaican Creole: mi
Sranan Tongo: mi
Translations
See me/translations § Pronoun.
Etymology 2
Variant form.
Determiner
me
(Britain regional, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial)Alternative form of my
Translations
See also
References
A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [2]
Anagrams
'em, EM, Em, em, em-
Akan
Pronoun
me
I
Albanian
Pronunciation
IPA(key): [mɛ]
Etymology 1
From Proto-Albanian*me(t). Cognate to Ancient Greekμετά(metá, “after, beyond; in the middle, between”), Gothicmiþ(miþ, “with”), Old Norsemeð.
Preposition
me (+accusative)
with (accompanied by)
with (possessing)
with (by means of)
Etymology 2
From Proto-Indo-European*manu, compare Ancient Greekμανός(manós, “thin”), Old Armenianմանր(manr, “small”). Alternatively it could represent a continuation of Proto-Indo-European*mṇi̯ō, to be compared with Latinminuō(“lessen”), Proto-Slavic*mьnь(“smaller”) and the like.
Adjective
mem (femininemee)
insufficient, scanty, not full
Derived terms
Angloromani
Alternative forms
ma, mai, mei, mey, mi
Etymology
Inherited from Romanime.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): [meɪ]
Pronoun
me
I
Synonyms:mandi, tutti
Annobonese
Etymology
From Portuguesemãe(“mother”).
Noun
me
mother
References
2005, John H. McWhorter, Defining Creole
Aragonese
Etymology
From Latinme. Akin to Spanishme and Frenchme.
Pronoun
me
me(first-person singular direct pronoun)
(to) me(first-person singular indirect pronoun)
Asturian
Alternative forms
m' (before a vowel)
Etymology
From Latinmē, accusative singular of ego. As an indirect pronoun, possibly in part from Latinmihi (dative singular of ego), through a Vulgar Latin*mi.
Pronoun
me
me(first-person singular direct pronoun)
me(first-person singular indirect pronoun)
Atong (India)
Alternative forms
mai
mei
Etymology
From EnglishMay.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /me/
Noun
me (Bengali scriptমে)
May
Synonyms
jetja
References
van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary. Stated in Appendix 5.
Breton
Etymology
From Proto-Brythonic*mi, from Proto-Celtic*mī, from Proto-Indo-European*me(“me”). Cognate to Welshmi.
Pronoun
me
I, me
Carolinian
Conjunction
me
and
Catalan
Etymology
From Latinmē (accusative of ego), from Proto-Indo-European*(e)me-.
Pronoun
me (enclitic, contracted'm, procliticem, contracted procliticm')
me (direct or indirect object)
Declension
Related terms
Chuukese
Conjunction
me
and
Preposition
me
from
Cimbrian
Article
me
(Sette Comuni) the; definite article for two declensions:
dative singular masculine
dative singular neuter
See also
References
“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
Cornish
Alternative forms
my (Standard Cornish, Standard Written Form)
Pronoun
me
(Standard Cornish) I, me
Dutch
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /mə/
Pronoun
me
objective unstressed form of ik(“I”)
Inflection
Synonyms
mij
Estonian
Etymology
Short form of meie, from Proto-Finnic*mek.
Pronoun
me (genitiveme, partitivemeid)
we
Declension
Finnish
Etymology
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).
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /ˈme/, [ˈme̞]
Rhymes: -e
Syllabification: me
Pronoun
me (stemmei-)
we
Usage notes
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”))
Inflection
Irregular. 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.
Synonyms
met(dialectal)
myö(dialectal)
Derived terms
me-henki
Descendants
Kven: met
See also
Anagrams
em.
French
Etymology
From Middle Frenchme, from Old Frenchme, from Latinmē (accusative of ego), from Proto-Indo-European*(e)me-, *(e)me-n-(“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.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /mə/
(Parisian) IPA(key): /mø/
Rhymes: -ə
Pronoun
me (personal, objective case)
(direct object)me
(indirect object) to me
Related terms
Further reading
“me” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Galician
Pronoun
me
inflection of eu:
accusative/dative
reflexive
Guaraní
Noun
me
male
husband
Haitian Creole
Etymology
From Frenchmai(“May”)
Noun
me
May
Hawaiian
Preposition
me
with
Icelandic
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /mɛː/
Rhymes: -ɛː
Interjection
me
baa (representing the bleating sound sheep make)
Ido
Etymology
From Englishme, Frenchme, Italianme, Spanishme, from Proto-Indo-European*(e)me-, *(e)me-n-(“me”).
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /me/, /mɛ/
Pronoun
me (first-person singular)
I, me
Derived terms
mea(“my, mine”)
Noun
me (pluralme-i)
The name of the Latin script letter M/m.
See also
(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)
See also
Istriot
Etymology
From Latinmē, accusative singular of ego.
Pronoun
me
objective of i; me; tome
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,
Italian
Etymology
From Latinmē.
Pronunciation
(standard) IPA(key): /me/
(Northern Italy) IPA(key): /mɛ/
Rhymes: -e
Pronoun
me (personal, objective case)
(disjunctive, emphatic)me
Pronoun
me
Alternative form of mi
Usage notes
Used when followed by a third-person direct object clitic (lo, la, li, le, or ne).
See also
Jamaican Creole
Pronoun
me
Alternative spelling of mi.
Japanese
Romanization
me
Rōmaji transcription of め (hiragana)
Rōmaji transcription of メ (katakana)
Jingpho
Etymology
Borrowed from Burmeseမဲ(mai:)
Noun
me
ballot
References
Kurabe, Keita (2016-12-31) , “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research[3], volume 35, DOI:10.14989/219015, ISSN 1349-7804, pages 91–128
Kein
Noun
me
louse
Further reading
Johannes A. Z'Graggen, The Madang-Adelbert Range Sub-Phylum (1975) (as mɛ)
Bemal Organized Phonology Data (as me)
Latin
Etymology
From Proto-Indo-European*(e)me-, *(e)me-n-(“me”). Cognate with Ancient Greekμε(me), ἐμέ(emé, “me”), Sanskritमा(mā, “me”), Old Englishme, Old Frisianmi, Old Saxonmī, Dutchmij, Old High Germanmih (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.
Pronunciation
(Classical) IPA(key): /meː/
(Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /me/, [mɛ]
Pronoun
mē(personal pronoun)
me, myself; accusative singular of ego
by me, with me, from me; ablative singular of ego
Derived terms
mēcum, mēmet
Descendants
References
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
Lolopo
Pronunciation
IPA(key): [mɯ³³]
Etymology 1
From Proto-Loloish*ʔ-mwe³ (Bradley), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan. Cognate with Sichuan Yiꂯ(mix), Burmeseအမွေး(a.mwe:), Drungmeul(“body hair”), Jingphomun, Tedim Chinmul¹.
Noun
me
(Yao'an) body hair
Etymology 2
From Proto-Loloish*s-mo¹ (Bradley). Cognate with Sichuan Yiꂥ(hmu), Burmeseမှို(hmui), Gongมู๋, Naximul, Japhugtɤ jmɤɣ and Jingphokämu.
Noun
me
(Yao'an) mushroom
Mandarin
Romanization
me (Zhuyin˙ㄇㄜ)
Pinyin transcription of 么
Pinyin transcription of 嚜
Pinyin transcription of 末
Pinyin transcription of 麼, 麽
Pinyin transcription of 嚒
me
Nonstandard spelling of mē.
Usage notes
English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
Mauritian Creole
Etymology
From Frenchmai
Noun
me
May
Mengen
Noun
me
(drinkable) water
any liquid
(non-tidal) stream, river
References
F. Madden, Mengen Dictionary (2006)
Dan Rath, Mengen Dialect Survey (1991) (me, mee)
Middle English
Etymology 1
Old Englishmē, from Proto-Indo-European. More at English me.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /meː/
Rhymes: -eː
Pronoun
me (nominativeI)
me (first-person singular accusative pronoun)
(reflexive) myself
Descendants
English: me
Scots: me
References
“me, pron.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2
Determiner
me (nominativeI)
Alternative form of mi.
References
“min, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 3
From man, men, by way of phonemic reduction in unstressed positions.
Pronoun
me
Typically singular, indefinite pronoun: one, you (indefinite).
See also
man
ei
References
“me, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Middle French
Alternative forms
m'(before a vowel)
Etymology
From Old Frenchme.
Pronoun
me
me, first-person singular object pronoun
to me, first-person singular indirect object pronoun
Synonyms
(first-person singular object and indirect object pronoun):moy(with verbs in the imperative)
Descendants
French: me
Nalca
Noun
me
son
child
Nauruan
Conjunction
me
and
Neapolitan
Etymology
From Latinmē.
Alternative forms
mme, m', mm'
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /me/
Rhymes: -e
Pronoun
me
me (accusative or dative or reflexive or prepositional)
Coordinate terms
Norman
Alternative forms
mé(continental Normandy, Jersey)
maïr(Guernsey)
Noun
mef (pluralmes)
(Sark) sea
North Frisian
Pronoun
me
First-person singular, objective:me
Northern Kurdish
Etymology 1
Pronoun
me
oblique form of em: us, we
Etymology 2
Verb
me
first-person singular present indicative of bûn
Synonym:im
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology 1
Probably from Old Norsemit, 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.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /meː/ (example of pronunciation)
Rhymes: -eː
Homophone: med
Pronoun
me (object caseoss)
we
Alternative forms
vi
See also
Etymology 2
Pronoun
me
eye dialect spelling of meg(“me”)
References
“me” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Anagrams
EM
Novial
Pronoun
me
I; me
(reflexive) myself
Related terms
men
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic*miz, dative of *ek, from Proto-Indo-European*me. Cognate with Old Frisianmi, Old Saxonmī, Dutchmij, Old High Germanmih (Germanmich), Old Norsemik, Gothic𐌼𐌹𐌺(mik). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latinme, Greekμε(me), Old Irishmé (Irishmí, Welshmi), Proto-Slavic*mene (Old Church Slavonicмене(mene), Russianменя́(menjá)), Lithuanianmi, Albanianmua.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /meː/
Pronoun
mē
(personal)accusative/dative of iċ: (to) me
Descendants
Middle English: me
English: me
Scots: me
Old French
Etymology
From Latinmē, accusative of ego. As an indirect object pronoun, possibly in part from Latinmihi, 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).
Pronoun
me
myself (first-person singular reflexive pronoun)
me (first-person singular direct object pronoun)
to me (first-person singular indirect object pronoun)
Related terms
moi/mei
Descendants
Middle French: me
French: me
Pali
Alternative forms
Pronoun
me
enclitic genitive/dative/instrumental/ablative singular of ahaṃ
Pennsylvania German
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /mə/
Etymology
Compare Germaneinem.
Article
mem or n (indefinite)
a, an
Declension
Polish
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /mɛ/
Pronoun
me
Alternative form of moje.
Portuguese
Etymology
From Old Portugueseme, from Latinmē (accusative of ego), from Proto-Indo-European*(e)me-. As an objective indirect pronoun, possibly in part from Latinmihi (dative of ego), through a Vulgar Latin*mi.
Pronunciation
(Portugal) IPA(key): /mɨ/
(Brazil) IPA(key): /mi/
Hyphenation: me
Rhymes: -i
Pronoun
me (personal pronoun)
first-person singular objective direct personal pronoun; me
first-person singular objective indirect personal pronoun; (to) me
first-person singular reflexive pronoun; myself
Quotations
For quotations using this term, see Citations:me.
See also
Romani
Pronoun
me
I
Descendants
Angloromani: me
See also
Romanian
Etymology
Onomatopoeic.
Interjection
me
baa (sound made by sheep or goats)
Scottish Gaelic
Alternative forms
m.e.
Etymology
From mar eisimpleir.
Adverb
me
e.g.
Serbo-Croatian
Pronoun
me (Cyrillic spellingме)
of me (genitive singular of jȃ(“I”))
me (accusative singular of jȃ(“I”))
Declension
Slovene
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /méː/
Pronoun
mẹ̑
we (feminine and neuter plural, more than two)
Inflection
See also
Spanish
Etymology
From Latinmē (accusative singular of ego), from Proto-Indo-European*(e)me-. As an indirect object, possibly in part from Latinmihi (dative of ego), through a Vulgar Latin*mi.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /me/
Pronoun
me (objective case)
(personal)accusative of yo: me
(personal, dative pronoun)dative of yo: to me, for me
(personal, reflexive)reflexive of yo: myself
See also
Turkish
Etymology 1
Noun
me
baa (sound of a sheep)
Etymology 2
Noun
me
The name of the Latin-script letter M.
See also
(Latin-script letter names)harf; a, be, ce, çe, de, e, fe, ge, yumuşak ge, he, ı, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, ö, pe, re, se, şe, te, u, ü, ve, ye, ze
Vietnamese
Pronunciation
(Hà Nội) IPA(key): [mɛ˧˧]
(Huế) IPA(key): [mɛ˧˧]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [mɛ˧˧]
Etymology 1
Compare Acehnesemè(“tamarind”).
Noun
(classifiercây, trái, quả) me • (楣)
tamarind
Etymology 2
Noun
me
mother
Synonyms:mẹ, ma
Westrobothnian
Etymology
From Old Norsemið(“middle; mark, sign.”) Compare Swedishmedel(“means,”)medel-(“mid(dle)-.”)
Noun
mem (definite singularmen)
superstition
Alternative forms
meda
Noun
men (pluralme)
method
White Hmong
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /me˧/
Adjective
me
little; small (size or quantity)
References
Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary[4], SEAP Publications, →ISBN.