myself

• meself (non-standard)
• myselfe (obsolete)

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”).

• (stressed) IPA^(key): /maɪˈsɛlf/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /məˈsɛlf/
• Hyphenation: my‧self
• Rhymes: -ɛlf

myself (reflexive case of I)

1. (reflexive pronoun) 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.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”

2. 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.]
3. In my normal state of body or mind.
4. Me (as the object of a verb or preposition). [from 10th c.]

   I feel like myself.

5. (archaic) I (as the subject of a verb). [from 14th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     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.

6. (India, Pakistan, nonstandard) my name is...

   Myself John.

• 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 (like myself) should not be used instead of objective pronouns (like me).

• (reflexive pronoun): me

• myselves
• I'll see myself out

• myselve

From Old English mē self, mē seolf, equivalent to my +‎ self.

• IPA^(key): /miːˈsɛlf/, /miˈsɛlf/

myself

1. myself

• English: myself
• Scots: mysel
• Yola: meezil

• “mī-self, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.