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/
• (some accents) enPR: mā, IPA^(key): /meɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː, -eɪ
• Homophones: mee, may (some accents)

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

1. The first-person singular, as the object (of a verb, preposition, etc).
   1. As the object (direct or indirect) of a verb.

      Can you hear me?

      He gave me this.

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

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

   4. As the object of a preposition.

      Come with me.

2. (sometimes proscribed) As the complement of the copula (be).

   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.

3. Used for the pronoun in isolation or in apposition.

   Who's there? —Me.

   Who did this? —Me. I did it. (≈ It was me. I did it.)

4. (nonstandard or proscribed) I, the first-person singular, as the subject.
   1. (informal, with a conjunction, often proscribed) As the subject of a verb.

      Me and my friends played a game.

      [It was] literally all me and my astrophysicist colleagues could talk about.

      Stella and me have opted to take a course called 'Autobiography and Fiction'.

   2. (nonstandard, not with a conjunction) As the subject of a verb. Sometimes used to indicate or imitate limited English fluency.
      • 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.

      • 1899 July 20, Mrs. A[lexander] J[effrey] McKelway [i.e., Lavinia Rutherford McKelway], “Children’s Department”, in A[lexander] J[effrey] McKelway, editor, Presbyterian Standard, volume XLI, number 28, Charlotte, N.C.: The Presbyterian Publishing Company, page 14, column 1:

        Well he said me mustn’t eat ’nanas cause ’nanas would make me sick.

      • 2005 October 10, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Teen Girl Squad Issue #10”, in Homestar Runner‎, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):

        Whoa! That was about the coolest thing ever! Me gotta see that again.

   3. (nonstandard, in apposition) Would be the subject of a copula in standard English, though the copula is omitted; used to indicate or imitate limited English fluency.
      • 1932 June, Katherine Albert, “Hey! Hey! Here Comes Johnny”, in James R. Quirk, editor, Photoplay, volume XLII, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Photoplay Publishing Company, page 119, column 2:

        “I should stick to Tarzan,” he [Johnny Weissmuller] explains. “You see, I’m no actor. Well, I didn’t have to act in ‘Tarzan, the Ape Man’—just said, ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane.’ I'll never be able to act.”

        The words do not occur in the film itself, nor in the original book by Burroughs. Instead, Tarzan says “Tarzan” and “Jane” repeatedly.

      • 1954 February 3, Mrs. John F. Underhill, “The Last Leaf; Chapter Three: Bear Tracks”, in Lawrence Maxwell, editor, Junior Guide, volume 2, number 5, Washington, D.C., page 7, column 2:

        May opened the door, and a huge Indian walked into the room. “Me Bear Tracks,” he said. “Me hungry.”

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

Using me as the lone subject of a verb (without a conjunction, 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 some dialects 'me' is also 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 prescribed as 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)

• meseems
• methinks
• noli me tangere

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

me (plural mes)

1. The self or personality of the speaker, especially their authentic self.

   Synonym: I

   • 1871, George MacDonald, “[At the Back of the North Wind] Out in the Storm”, in Harry Thurston Peck, Frank R[ichard] Stockton, Julian Hawthorne, editors, Masterpieces of the World’s Literature, Ancient and Modern: The Great Authors of the World with Their Master Productions, volume XIV, New York, N.Y.: American Literary Society, published 1899, pages 7514–7515:

     “Quite easily. Here you are taking care of a poor little boy with one arm, and there you are sinking a ship with the other. It can’t be like you.” “Ah, but which is me? I can’t be two mes, you know.” “No. Nobody can be two mes.” “Well, which me is me?” “Now I must think. There looks to be two.” “Yes. That’s the very point—You can’t be knowing the thing you don’t know, can you?” “No.” “Which me do you know?” “The kindest, goodest, best me in the world,” answered Diamond, clinging to North Wind. […] “Do you know the other me as well?” “No. I can’t. I shouldn’t like to.” “There it is. You don’t know the other me. You are sure of one of them?” “Yes.” “And you are sure there can’t be two mes?” “Yes.” “Then the me you don’t know must be the same as the me you do know—else there would be two mes?” “Yes.” “Then the other me you don’t know must be as kind as the me you do know?”

   • 1948 January, Rog Phillips [pseudonym; Roger Phillip Graham], “Hate”, in Amazing Stories, volume 22, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, page 69, column 2:

     The question seems unanswerable, because if those same atoms were to be collected as they leave my body as waste in the normal process of metabolism, and in a year when my body contained all new atoms, those old atoms which were me a year ago were reformed into an exact replica of me down to the last thought and cell, would there be two mes?

   • 1990, Bei Dao [pseudonym; Zhao Zhenkai], translated by Bonnie S. McDougall and Susette Ternent Cooke, Waves, New York, N.Y.: New Directions Publishing, →ISBN, page 158:

     “In these last few days I keep feeling that I’m changing, changing into something I don’t quite recognize myself.” / “You’ve become more like yourself.” / “Could there be two mes?” / “Perhaps more than two.” / “It gets worse and worse. So which me do you actually love ?” / “All of them.” / “You’re being slippery.” Her lips curled slyly. “In fact you only love the me in your mind’s eye, and that me doesn’t exist, right?” / “No, that’s the combination of all the yous.” / She laughed. “It’s just as complicated as a mathematical calculation, if you end up with the three-headed, six-armed me, could you stand that?”

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

   Mete Twi kasa.

   I speak Twi.

• 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 (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

• John H. McWhorter (2005) Defining Creole (in Annobonese)

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

me

1. First-person singular dative, accusative and prepositional pronoun; me

• Takes the form m' before verbs beginning with vowel sounds.

• “me”, in Aragonario, diccionario castellano–aragonés (in Spanish)

• 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

Inherited from Latin mē (accusative of ego).

• (Central) IPA^(key): /mə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /me/

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…

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈmɛ]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈmə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈme]

me f (uncountable)

1. (colloquial, childish, euphemistic) poo

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 (web)‎, 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN

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]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification^(key): me

me

1. we

   Me emme unohda. ― We will not forget.

   Näin meidän kesken... ― Just between us...

   Mennäänkö meille? ― Should we go over to our place?

• When the verb shows both the person and the number, the pronoun may be left out in written Finnish and is usually only used for emphasis. However, the inflected forms are often used. In colloquial Finnish, the pronoun is almost always used, even with a verb. (compare the usage of minä (“I”)).
• See this appendix for information on the dialectal variants of me.

• 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)

• Kven: met

• “me”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

• 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”).

• IPA^(key): /me/

me

1. May

Cognate with Maori me (“and, with, must”) and Samoan ma (“and, with”).

• IPA^(key): /me/

me

1. with

• IPA^(key): /mɛː/
• Rhymes: -ɛː

me

1. baa (representing the bleating sound sheep make)

• IPA^(key): /me/, /mɛ/

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

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”)

From m +‎ -e.

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 December 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)

• IPA^(key): /me/

me

1. you (singular and masculine), thou
   • 1891, “Jenesis 3:19”, in Ka Baibl (Khasi Bible):

     Naba ka 'dewmet me long, bad sha ka 'dewmet men leit phai pat.

     For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

   • 1891, “Salm 37:6”, in Ka Baibl (Khasi Bible):

     Bad un pynmih noh ïa ka hok jong me kum ka jingshai[.]

     And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light.

• pha
• tun
• phi

• Bars, E. (1973) “me”, in Khasi-English Dictionary, Shillong, Meghalaya: Don Bosco Press

• 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]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /me/, [mɛː]

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 *s/r-m(u/i/ja)l. Cognate with Nuosu 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 Nuosu ꂥ (hmu), Burmese မှို (hmui), Gong มู๋, Naxi mul, Japhug tɤjmɤɣ 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.

Cognate with Hawaiian me (“with”) and Samoan ma (“and, with”).

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