methinks, impers. v. Now arch. and poet.
(miːˈθɪŋks)
Pa. tense methought (miːˈθɔːt). Forms: see below and cf. think v.1
[OE. mé þyncþ (pa. tense mé þ{uacu}hte), where mé is dative, and þyncþ the 3 pers. sing of þyncean to seem: see think v.1
As think v.1 did not, exc. in this phrase, survive beyond the 14th c., and had no very wide currency after 1250, the syntax of methinks became obscure. Hence it underwent various alterations of form. The verb being supposed to be think v.2, it followed that it ought to be in the first person; hence the form me think, in which probably the pronoun was still correctly apprehended as a dative. In the 16–17th c. there occur the forms my think, my thought(s, which are attempts to obtain a normal syntax by taking think, thought, as ns. The curious form methoughts, used in the 17th and the first half of the 18th c., prob. owes its s to the analogy of the present tense methinks.]
It seems to me. (Used with dependent clause or parenthetically.)
1. pres. tense † (α) methinketh.
| c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxiv. §3 Me þincð þæt hit hæbbe ᵹeboht sume swiðe leaslice mærðe. a 1200 Moral Ode 5 Vnnet lif ich habbe iled, and ȝet me þingþ ilede. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 95 With such gladnesse I daunce and skippe, Me thenkth I touche noght the flor. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 2 And yet methinkyth it were pete That my werk were hatyd for me. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 10 There is a Hopper (mee thinketh) ouer the toppe of the Oast. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 439 Me thinketh this motiue should not be without effect. |
| ¶ Substantive use. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. iv. §2 When they opposed their Me thinketh vnto the orders of the Church of England. |
(
β)
methinks.
| 1560 Whitehorne Arte Warre (1573) 103 b, Nor me thinkes that there resteth other to tell you then certaine general rules. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. ii. 16 Methinkes you are sadder. 1661 Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 76 'Tis methinks an unpleasant business. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 6 ¶5 Respect to all kind of Superiours is founded methinks upon Instinct. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 281 Methinks a strait canal is as rational at least as a mæandring bridge. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 119 Methinks a person of delicate individuality..could never endure to lie buried near Shakespeare. 1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus xciii. 1 Lightly methinks I reck if Caesar smile not upon me. |
† (
γ)
methink.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 16332 (Cott.) Me thinc it es noght sua. 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 616, & he wald me so o loue ȝerne, Me þenke y no myȝt it him nouȝt werne. c 1470 Henry Wallace i. 385 It war resone, me think, yhe suld haif part. 1564–78 W. Bullein Dial. agst. Pest. (1888) 19 Me thinke I see twoo men in long gounes with short beardes at the gates. 1659 Gentl. Calling v. x, So dismal a consequent, as, methink, should like Lot's wife, remain a perpetual monument to deter others. |
† (
δ)
my think(s.
| 1530 Crome in Strype Eccl. Mem. III. App. x. 20 And my think that this manner of praying dooth not dysanull..purgatorye. a 1619 Fletcher Mad Lover ii. iii, My thinks a gentleman should keepe his word. |
2. pa. tense. (
α)
methought.
| c 1200 Vices & Virtues 13 And ȝif ic nadde, me ðuhte þat hit nas naht wel betowen, ðar ic hit idon hadde. a 1300–1400 Cursor M. 8171 (Gött.) Me thoght [Cotton me thoght] to night on þis-kyn wise, Þat we war bath in paradise. c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 343 Me thought he was gayly dysgysyd at that fest. 1535 Coverdale Judg. vii. 13 Me thoughte a baken barlye lofe came rollinge downe to y⊇ hoost of y⊇ Madianites. 1651 H. More Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656) 309, I dream'd thus. Methought I was at a friends house in the rode betwixt London and Scotland. 1711 Pope Temp. Fame 498 While thus I stood..One came, methought, and whisper'd in my ear. 1832 Tennyson Dream Fair Women xiv, At last methought that I had wander'd far In an old wood. 1878 H. Phillips Poems fr. Spanish & Germ. 48 Methought my days were ended. |
† (
β)
methoughts.
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. iv. 9 Me thoughts that I had broken from the Tower. 1620 Wotton Let. to Bacon in Reliq. (1651) 413 The draught of a Landskip on a piece of paper, me thoughts masterly done. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 63 ¶3 Methoughts I was transported into a Country that was filled with Prodigies. 1751 Female Foundling I. 30 The inward Satisfaction which I felt, had spread in my Eyes I know not what of melting and passionate, which methoughts I had never before observed. |
† (
γ)
my thought.
| a 1300 [see α]. 1503 Hawes Examp. Virt. iv. 3 My thought it was an heuenly syght. 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 435 Then my thought I saw he had commission. |