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
- inheritedMiddle English-self
- surface analysisEnglishself “Himself, herself, itself, themself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).”
Related: Scots mysel
Sources
- Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wiktionary: myself