English

myself

/maɪˈsɛlf/
Me, as direct or indirect object the speaker as the object of a verb or preposition, when the speaker is also the subject.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    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”).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishmyself
      • inheritedOld Englishmē
    • surface analysisEnglishme “As the object (direct or indirect) of a verb.”
    • surface analysisEnglishmy “Belonging to me.”
    • suffixEnglish-self “Used in forming intensive and reflexive forms of the singular personal pronouns.”
      • inheritedMiddle English-self
        • derivedOld Englishself
    • surface analysisEnglishself “Himself, herself, itself, themself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).”

    Related: Scots mysel

    Sources