* meself (non-standard) * myselfe (archaic)

From _me_ (pronoun) + _self_ (pronoun). Later partly reinterpreted as _my_ + _self_ (noun).

* (UK) IPA(key): /maɪˈsɛlf/ * Rhymes: -ɛlf * Hyphenation: my‧self

MYSELF (_reflexive case of_ I) * (reflexive) Me, as direct or indirect object the speaker as the object of a verb or preposition, when the speaker is also the subject. [from 9th c.] _I taught MYSELF._ * Personally, for my part; used in apposition to _I_, sometimes for simple emphasis and sometimes with implicit exclusion of any others performing the activity described. [from 10th c.] * Me (as the object of a verb or preposition). [from 10th c.] * 1994, Nelson Mandela, _Long Walk to Freedom_, Abacus 2010, p. 36: Later I realized that the ignorant man that day was not the chief but MYSELF. * (archaic) I (as the subject of a verb). [from 14th c.] * 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, _Essays_, II.8: And MY SELFE have knowen a Gentleman, a chiefe officer of our crowne, that by right and hope of succession (had he lived unto it) was to inherit above fifty thousand crownes a yeere good land […]. * 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, _The English Physician Enlarged_: MYSELF am confident that an ointment of it is one of the best remedies for a scabby head that is. RELATED TERMS * myselves USAGE NOTES * Use where I could be used is mostly poetic or archaic, except with a coordinating conjunction, such as _and_. * _Garner's Modern American Usage_ (2009) reports opposition to the intensifier use, especially where _I_ could be used. * AP Stylebook Online (2010) reports opposition to the intensifier use as reflexive pronouns (myself) should not be used instead of objective pronouns (me). TRANSLATIONS SEE ALSO

MYSELF (_plural_ OURSELVES) * that being which is oneself _I am not MYSELF today._ TRANSLATIONS