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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

English

I

/aɪ/
The speaker or writer, referred to as the grammatical subject, of a sentence.

    Etymology graph

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    • borrowed
    • derived
    • parts
    • meaning component
    • sound component
    • related
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English a, hi, hich, hij, I, ic, ich, ichc, ichs, ick, ig, ih, ik, j, jch, y, from Old English ic, ich, ih, ᛁᚳ (ic), ᛁᚴ (ik, “I”), from Proto-West Germanic *ik (“I”), from Proto-Germanic *ek, *eka, *ik (“I”), from Proto-Indo-European *eǵh₂óm (“I”).

    Cognates

    Cognate with Scots A, I, Ik (“I”), Yola Ich (“I”), North Frisian ick, ik, 'k (“I”), Saterland Frisian iek (“I”), West Frisian ik (“I”), Alemannic German i, ich, ig (“I”), Bavarian and Mòcheno i (“I”), Central Franconian eich, ich (“I”), Cimbrian i, ich (“I”), Dutch ick, ik, ikke (“I”), Low German eck, ick, ik, öck (“I”), German ich (“I”), Limburgish ich, iich (“I”), Luxembourgish ech (“I”), Vilamovian ych (“I”), West Flemish 'k (“I”), Yiddish איך (ikh), יאַך (yakh, “I”), Danish jeg, jæ (“I”), Elfdalian ig (“I”), Faroese eg, jeg (“I”), Icelandic eg, ég, ek, jeg (“I”), Jutish æ (“I”), Norn eg (“I”), Norwegian Bokmål jeg (“I”), Norwegian Nynorsk eg, æg (“I”), Swedish i, jag (“I”), Crimean Gothic ich (“I”), Gothic 𐌹𐌺 (ik, “I”); also Asturian, Aragonese, and Spanish yo (“I”), Catalan jo (“I”), French je (“I”), Galician and Portuguese eu (“I”), Italian io (“I”), Leonese and Mirandese you (“I”), Latin ego (“I”), Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ, “I”), Latvian es (“I”), Lithuanian aš (“I”), Armenian ես (es, “I”), Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian я (ja, “I”), Bulgarian аз (az, “I”), Czech já (“I”), Macedonian јас (jas, “I”), Polish and Slovak ja (“I”), Serbo-Croatian jȃ (“I”), Slovene jȁz (“I”), Northern Kurdish ez (“I”), Sanskrit अहम् (ahám, “I”), Hittite 𒌑𒊌 (ūk, “I”). See also English ich. Doublet of ego and Ich.

    Capitalized since the 13th century to mark it as a distinct word and prevent misreading and omission (due to cursive writing).

    Etymology 2

    Old French i, from Latin ī, from Etruscan I (i).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle EnglishI
      • inheritedOld Englishiċ “I”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*ik
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*ek
            • derivedProto-Germanic*eka
        • inheritedProto-Germanic*ik
          • inheritedProto-Indo-European*eǵh₂óm “I”
    • derivedLatini
      • derivedEtruscanI

    Related: English ego (doublet), English ich, English Ich (doublet), Scots A, Yola Ich, North Frisian ick, Saterland Frisian iek, West Frisian ik, Alemannic German i, bar,mhn i, Central Franconian eich, Cimbrian i, Dutch ick, Low German eck, German ich, Limburgish ich, Luxembourgish ech, Vilamovian ych, West Flemish 'k, Yiddish איך, Danish jeg, Elfdalian ig, Faroese eg, Icelandic eg

    Meanings

    pron
    1. The speaker or writer, referred to as the grammatical subject, of a sentence.
    2. The speaker or writer, referred to as the grammatical object, of a sentence.
    noun
    1. The ego.
    character
    1. The ninth letter of the English alphabet, called i and written in the Latin script.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: I