I am
English
Etymology
Originally after Biblical usage (Exodus 3:14), translating (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Hebrew אֶהְיֶה ('ehyeh).
Noun
I am (uncountable)
- God, seen as self-sufficient and self-existent.
- 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, Exodus 3:14:
- And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.
- 1817, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literara, I.13:
- The primary imagination I hold to be the living Power and prime Agent of all human Perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.
- 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, Exodus 3:14:
- (colloquial, frequently with great) A self-centred, arrogant person.
- 2003, Alasdair Gray, ‘Miss Kincaid's Autumn’, Canongate 2012 (Every Short Story), p. 751:
- Joe entered and said, ‘Dinner-time. The Great I Am upstairs has grudgingly assented to oxtail soup, bangers and mash, tinned peaches with ice cream.’
- 2003, Alasdair Gray, ‘Miss Kincaid's Autumn’, Canongate 2012 (Every Short Story), p. 751:
Interjection
- Indicates solidarity or a support of a shared conviction with the person or object upon which a perceived injustice is being inflicted.
Antonyms
Translations
I'm — see I'm