history - Are there or were there any other conjoined pronoun-verb combinations like "methinks" in English?


And why was this ever considered grammatically correct? Why not "Ithinks"?


Edit:


When I ask "why," I'm wondering for example, whether or not "me" has always been the first-person objective case in English.



Answer



"Methinks" comes from me þyncð, meaning (it) seems to me. There were originally two distinct but related verbs, þyncan (to seem) and þencan (to think). The former eventually fell out of favour while the latter became the modern think. Commonly used multi-word phrases and terms are often joined into single words over time: look at almost, whoever, prithee, perhaps, and countless others. It does seem that relatively few of these involve personal pronouns, though.


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