different between mythinks vs methinks

English

Alternative forms

• methinketh, me thinketh, me thinks, mythinks, my thinks

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, m? þyncþ. Compare synonymous German mich dünkt.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /m?????ks/

Contraction

methinks (past tense: methought)

1. (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

   • ~1350-1400, Geoffrey Chaucer:

     Me thinketh accordant to reason
     To telle you al the condicion

   • 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.

   • 2003, Arrested Development, "Bringing Up Buster":

     Dr. Tobias Funke: Methinks a cupid I shall play.

Translations

See also

• methought (archaic)
• meseems (obsolete)
• mehopes

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “methinks”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN