Myself
pronounThe reflexive or emphatic form of 'I', referring back to the speaker.
How to spell myself
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce myself
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does myself mean?
- pronounThe reflexive or emphatic form of 'I', referring back to the speaker.
Myself in a sentence
-
I made the entire dinner myself without any help.
-
I treated myself to a long holiday after the project ended.
Where does myself come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Myself comes from Old English, where it was formed from 'me', the object form of the first-person pronoun, joined to 'self', meaning 'one's own person or being'. The Old English 'self' was an intensifier used to emphasise identity, and the same element survives in 'himself', 'herself', and 'yourself'. Over the medieval period the spelling drifted as 'me self' was reanalysed and the possessive 'my' attached to 'self', giving the single word we write today. The word has always been native Germanic stock, with no detour through French or Latin, which is why it stays short and plain. Its straightforward spelling reflects that long, uncomplicated history.
How the word is built
- my (possessive of 'me')
- self (one's own person)
Fix your spelling for good.
Spelling Garden finds the words you personally get wrong, plants them in a garden, and brings each one back just before you would have forgotten it.
Just five minutes a day is all it takes to fix your spelling.