methinks
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Old English mē thyncth, from mē (“to me”) + thyncth (“it seems”) (from þyncan (“to seem”)); equivalent to me (“object pronoun”) + think (“to seem”). The modern syntax would be "it makes me think". Compare synonymous German mir dünkt, Old Norse mér þykkir (Icelandic mér þykir).
Pronunciation edit
Contraction edit
methinks (past tense methought)
- (archaic or humorous) It seems to me.
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:
- Me thinketh accordant to reson
To tellen you al the condicion- To me it seems reasonable
To tell you all the condition
- To me it seems reasonable
- c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- methinks the truth should live from age to age,
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
- 1862 February, George Augustus [Henry] Sala, “The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous; a Narrative in Plain English, […] Chapter the Fourth. My Grandmother Dies, and I am Left Alone, without So Much as a Name.”, in George Augustus Sala, editor, Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume IV, London: Office of "Temple Bar," 122 Fleet Street; Ward and Lock, 158 Fleet Street; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers, →OCLC, page 304:
- And then methought my dream changed, and two Great Giants with heading-axes came striding over the bed, […]
- 2003, “Bringing Up Buster”, in Arrested Development:
- Dr. Tobias Funke: Methinks a cupid I shall play.
Usage notes edit
In Early Modern English, used at least 150 times by William Shakespeare; in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer, me thinketh; and in Old English by Alfred the Great, mē þyncþ.
Translations edit
it seems to me
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See also edit
References edit
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “methinks”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.