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(). 1. I, the ninth letter of the English alphabet, takes its form from the Phnician, through the Latin and the Greek. The Phnician letter was probably of Egyptian origin. Its original value was nearly the same as that of the Italian I, or long e as in mete. Etymologically I is most closely related to e, y, j, g; as in dint, dent, beverage, L. bibere; E. kin, AS. cynn; E. thin, AS. ynne; E. dominion, donjon, dungeon. In English I has two principal vowel sounds: the long sound, as in pne, ce; and the short sound, as in pn. It has also three other sounds: (a) That of e in term, as in thirst. (b) That of e in mete (in words of foreign origin), as in machine, pique, regime. (c) That of consonant y (in many words in which it precedes another vowel), as in bunion, million, filial, Christian, etc. It enters into several digraphs, as in fail, field, seize, feign. friend; and with o often forms a proper diphtong, as in oil, join, coin. See Guide to Pronunciation, 98-106. The dot which we I- (), prefix.See Y-. I (), pron.[poss.My (m) or Mine (mn); object.Me (m). pl. nom.We (w); poss.Our (our) or Ours (ourz); object.Us (s).] [OE. i, ich, ic, AS. ic; akin to OS. & D. ik, OHG. ih, G. ich, Icel. ek, Dan. jeg, Sw. jag, Goth. ik, OSlav. az', Russ. ia, W. i, L. ego, Gr. 'egw°, 'egw°n, Skr. aham. 179. Cf. Egoism.] The nominative case of the pronoun of the first person; the word with which a speaker or writer denotes himself. Y- (), or I-}. [OE. y-, i-, AS. ge-, akin to D. & G. ge-, OHG. gi-, ga-, Goth. ga-, and perhaps to Latin con-; originally meaning, together. Cf. Com-, Aware, Enough, Handiwork, Ywis.] A prefix of obscure meaning, originally used with verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, and pronouns. In the Middle English period, it was little employed except with verbs, being chiefly used with past participles, though occasionally with the infinitive Ycleped, or yclept, is perhaps the only word not entirely obsolete which shows this use. That no wight mighte it see neither yheere. Chaucer. Neither to ben yburied nor ybrent. Chaucer. Some examples of Chaucer's use of this prefix are; ibe, ibeen, icaught, ycome, ydo, idoon, ygo, iproved, ywrought. It inough, enough, it is combined with an adjective. Other examples are in the Vocabulary. Spenser and later writers frequently employed this prefix when affecting an archaic style, and sometimes used it incorrectly. スポンサード リンク
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