methinks
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From me (“object pronoun”) + think (“to seem”). 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. Compare synonymous German mich dünkt.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /mɪˈθɪŋks/
Audio (US): (file)
Contraction
methinks (past tense: methought)
- (archaic or humorous) It seems to me.
- ~870-899, Alfred the Great:
- Forthy me thincth betre,
gif iow swæ thincth,
thæt we eac sumæ bec
- Forthy me thincth betre,
- ~1350-1400, Geoffrey Chaucer:
- Me thinketh accordant to reason
To telle you al the condicion
- Me thinketh accordant to reason
- 1591, William Shakespeare, King Richard III: III, i
- methinks the truth should live from age to age,
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 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, Arrested Development, "Bringing Up Buster":
- Dr. Tobias Funke: Methinks a cupid I shall play.
- ~870-899, Alfred the Great:
Translations
it seems to me
|
See also
References
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “methinks”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.