myself

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

From Middle English myself, meself, me-self, me sylf, from Old English mē self, mē seolf (“myself”), equivalent to me (pronoun) + self (pronoun), later partly reinterpreted as my + self (noun). Compare Scots mysel, mysell (“myself”), West Frisian mysels (“myself”), Dutch mijzelf (“myself”), Norwegian Bokmål meg selv (“myself”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /maɪˈsɛlf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlf
• Hyphenation: my‧self

myself (reflexive case of I)

1. (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.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     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