I--prophetes.ai

▪ I. I
    (aɪ)
    the ninth letter and third vowel of the Roman alphabet, going back through the Greek Iota to the Semitic Yod. The simple form I of the character in Greek from about 500 b.c., and in the Roman alphabet, was reduced from a more complex Early Greek form {egiota}, which originated in the Phœnician 𐤉. The Semitic letter represents a consonant (= English Y in yellow, yoke, etc.), but this forms diphthongs with preceding a and e, and ‘quiesces’ in a preceding i, making long ī. It is thus, in the body or at the end of a word, often an indication of the vowel ī; and it was adopted as the symbol of the i vowel by the Greeks, who had no y consonant. In the Latin alphabet, on the other hand, it was used with both values, viz. that of i vowel (long and short), and y consonant, as in ibīdem, ībis; iacui, Iupiter, Iouis. Even when the consonant passed in Romanic from the sound of Y to that of ‘G soft’ (Italian gi-, Eng. and OF. j), and subsequently, in some languages, to other sounds, it continued for many centuries to be expressed by the same letter as the vowel I, with which it had no longer phonetic relations. At length, after 1600 (in England chiefly 1630–1640), a differentiation was made, the consonant being expressed by the character J j, in its origin merely a variant form of I i, used in certain positions; for the history of which see the next letter J. The result is that, in the modern development of the Roman alphabet, the ninth letter has been split into two, I and J; and I remains only a vowel.
    The original value of the Græco-Roman I vowel when long was that of the ‘high-front-narrow’ vowel of Bell's scale, which the letter still has in all the continental languages, and in some English words thence adopted, as Louisa, machine, clique, casino, a sound which in native English words is now normally represented by ē, ee, in be, see, mete, meet. The short i was doubtless originally the true ‘short’ of the same sound, the ‘narrow’ i in French fini, Italian fortissimo; but, in Teutonic, the short vowel represented by i has probably always been the corresponding ‘wide’ vowel (ɪ), as in English finny, missing. Thus, our current sound of short i in him, it, has, apparently, come down unchanged from OE. times. Long i, on the other hand, has undergone a great change, having about the beginning of the modern period changed into a diphthong with i as its second element. This evidently arose from the practice of beginning the utterance of the long vowel before the vocal organs had quite attained the very close position of long (iː), so that the sound began with an opener and less definite vowel quality, which tended in use to become more and more distinct from the second element. The exact quality of the first element at present is difficult to fix: it varies greatly in different localities and in different individuals. ‘We have symbolized the diphthong by (əɪ), taking the first element as the {oqq}mid-mixed-wide{cqq} vowel of Melville Bell's scale, the general {oqq}obscure vowel{cqq} of English; but some phonetists take it as the {oqq}mid-back{cqq} or the {oqq}low-mixed{cqq} vowel, wide or narrow; and it may be heard locally as the {oqq}mid-front{cqq} and {oqq}low-front{cqq} wide or narrow.’ (N.E.D.) This diphthongization of original long ī is not peculiar to English, but has taken place also in German and Dutch. The difference is that in English the old simple vowel symbol is retained for the new diphthong, while in German and Dutch this is expressed by the new diphthongal symbols ei and ij (formerly y): cf. OE., OHG., OLG. mīn with Eng. mine, Ger. mein, Du. mijn, formerly myn.
    In addition to the two normal modern English values (ɪ) and (aɪ), the letter i has others, due either to the disturbing influence of a following r, to the retention by foreign words of their foreign sounds, or to the obscuring effect of absence of stress in certain positions. The sounds that occur in stressed syllables are the following:

    1. (ɪ)in hit(hɪt).
    2. (aɪ)in ice(aɪs).
    3. (aɪə)in hire(haɪə(r)).
    4. (ɜː)in fir(fɜː).
    5. (iː)in pique(piːk).
    6. (ɪə)in emir(ɛˈmɪə(r)).
    All these may occur also in unstressed syllables.
    The combination ie has the value of No. 2 in die, dies, died, etc.; of Nos. 5 and 6 in field, chief, grieve, pier, grenadier, etc.; exceptionally that of (ɛ) in friend, (ɪ) in sieve. Finally, and unstressed, it has that of simple (ɪ), as in aerie, cities, pitied.
    The combinations ai, ei, oi represent diphthongs in Isaiah (aɪˈzaɪə), aisle (aɪl), eider (aɪdə(r)), oil (ɔɪl), etc.; but ai, ei merely represent (eɪ), (ɛə), (iː) or (ɪə) in aim (eɪm), air (ɛə(r)), rein (reɪn), feint, heir (ɛə(r)), receive, receipt, Leith (liːθ), weir (wɪə(r)), etc.
    Before another vowel in the suffixes -ian, -ier, -ion, -ious, etc., i has often the consonantal value of (j), or a value which readily passes into it: e.g. Christian, clothier, courtier, million, onion, union, copious, previous; after certain consonants, this (j) value is merged in the consonant, which it palatalizes, as in spacious (ˈspeɪʃəs), nation (ˈneɪʃən), soldier (ˈsəʊldʒə(r)), fusion (ˈfjuːʒən), Persia (pɜːʃə), hosier (həʊʒə(r)), fashion (ˈfæʃən).
    The minuscule or ‘small letter’ i is now surmounted by a dot. This is no original part of the letter, but is derived from a diacritic mark, like an acute accent, used to particularize the i in positions in which it might have been taken merely for the stroke of another letter. It appears to have begun in Latin MSS. about the 11th c. with the ii in such words as ingen{iacu}{iacu}, and to have been thence extended to i in contiguity with m, n, or u, and finally to have been used with i in all positions. The accent form of the mark, seen in Caxton's type and in modern German, was in 15th c. handwriting often developed into a long curved flourish; but in books printed in Roman type it was reduced to the round dot now in use. In chirography, the dot still largely serves its original purpose of indicating the i; hence the phrase to dot the i's.
    The same cause that led to the dotting of i contributed largely to the formation of j, originally merely a lengthened or tailed i used finally as a more distinctive form, especially when two i's came together, as in ingenij, or in the numerals ij, iij, viij, etc.; also to the substitution of y for i, especially in contiguity with m, n, u, etc., or when final. In English it became at length a kind of scribal canon that i must not be used as a final letter, but must in this position be changed to y; but in inflected forms, where the i was not final, it was retained; hence our current spellings, city, cities; holy, holier, holiest; carry, carries, carried, carrier; weary, wearisome, etc. In modern English no native word ends in i; in alien or adopted words so ending, the i is usually pronounced (aɪ) in cirri, foci, magi, and other Latin plurals, also in Rabbi, Rabboni, Eli, Levi, and other Hebrew names, but as (ɪ) in Cadi, kohlrabi, Mahdi, and other foreign words of recent adoption.
    I. 1. Illustrations of the literary use of the letter: a. simply. (The plural appears as Is, I's, is, i's.) I per se, or I per se I, the letter I by itself forming a word, esp. the pronoun I. Also fig. esp. in dot of (on) an i, to put the dots on the i's, to dot the (one's) i's: see dot n.¹ 5 b, v.¹ 1 b.

c 1000 ælfric Gram. iii, Of þam [stafum] syndon fif vocales, þæt synd clypjendlice: a, e, i, o, u. Ibid., Gyf þu cwyst nu iudex, þonne byð se i consonans. c 1450 Poem agst. Friars i. (Rel. Antiq. I. 322) With an I. and an O. thai praysen not Seynt Poule. Ibid. ii, With an O. and an I. men weven that thai wede. c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. (in Palsgr. 899), Ye shal pronounce..your i, as sharpe as can be. 1552 Huloet Q iv, I Letter is as wel a consonante as a vowell. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman ii. iii. ii. II. 226, I only was compleat; I was I per se I; I was like a Rule, without exception. 1669 W. Holder Elem. Speech 95 Our vulgar (i) as in (stile) seems to be..a Dipthong..composed of a, i, or e, i, and not a simple Original Vowel. 1711 J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 240 No English Word ends in I, but has always an E after it, as easie..tho' now ie is frequently changed into y. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., That verse in Virgil, Accipiunt inimicum imbrem, rimisque fatiscunt; which abounds in i's. 1890 J. H. Stirling Gifford Lect. xvi. 317 It is but a logical breathing: a logical dot on a logical i. 1892 Bowen in Law Rep. 2 Ch. Div. 486 He must..have full notice. But there is no regulation as to what t's are to be crossed or what i's are to be dotted in the notice to be given.

b. Representing Gr. ἰῶτα, iota: see jot.

c 975 Rushw. Gosp. Matt. v. 18 Oþþæt ᵹeleoreþ heofun and eorþe, an i [Vulg. iota unum] eþþa an holstæfes ne ᵹelioreþ from ae. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Ibid., An i oððe an prica.

2. Comb. a. i-dot, the dot of an i; I-bar, I-beam, I-iron, I-rail, an iron bar, rail, etc., the section of which is like the letter I.

1875 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Angle-iron, Other forms are known as Z-iron, I-iron, etc. Ibid. 1195, I-rail, a double-headed rail with flanges on each side above and below; on the foot and tread. 1890 Gordon Foundry 69 A ceaseless hoisting and swinging and lowering of angle-bar, I-bar, Z-bar, or other bar gliding into its appointed place. 1897 P. Warung Tales Old Regime 23 They were identical to..the position of an i-dot.

b. i-mutation, i-umlaut (also i/j-mutation, etc.) Philology, the fronting influence of an *i or *j on the vowel of a preceding syllable in one and the same word; also, the result of this. So i-mutated, i-umlauted ppl. adjs.

1870 F. A. March Compar. Gram. Anglo-Saxon Lang. 13 i-umlaut of ô: fôt, fêt(e). 1891 A. L. Mayhew Synopsis Old Eng. Phonol. 41 In North. and Mercian oe = e, the i-umlaut of o. 1906 H. C. Wyld Hist. Study Mother Tongue i. 10 This particular kind of change, known as i-mutation, occurs in hundreds of words in O.E., though, as a rule, the i or j which caused the fronting, disappeared. 1908 J. & E. M. Wright Old Eng. Gram. iii. 28, a was the only vowel which underwent i-umlaut in OS. and OHG. 1927 Englische Studien 10 Nov. 81 There was, by the side of OE. scēat..an i-mutated variant scīete or scyte with the same sense. 1927 E. V. Gordon Introd. Old Norse 246, {obar}₂ was the w-mutation of ę or (rarely) a late i-mutation of ǫ. 1945 S. Einarsson Icelandic i. v. 30 The I-Shift (..i-umlaut, i-mutation) is so called because it was caused by an i or a j— now often lost—in the ending of a word. 1953 L. F. Brosnahan Some Old Eng. Sound Changes 63 The phenomenon of i- or j- mutation.

II. 3. Used, like other letters of the alphabet, to denote serial order; marking, e.g. the ninth sheet of a book, or quire of a MS., etc.
4. In Logic, the symbol of a particular affirmative.

1552 T. Wilson Logike 54 b, A dooeth affirme: E dooeth deny, whiche are bothe vniuersall: I dooth affirme, O dooth deny, whiche we particular call. 1620 T. Granger Div. Log. 262 The Vowels..signifie the qualities, and quantities of the premisses. A. An universall affirmative. E. An universall negative. I. A particular affirmative. O. A particular negative. 1866 Fowler Deduct. Logic (1869) 14 If I be false; A is false, E true, O true.

5. The Roman numeral symbol for One.
This was not originally the letter, but a single line denoting unity. It is repeated for the units up to 3 (II, III), formerly, as still on a dial-plate, to 4 (IIII). These are added to symbols of higher numbers, as VI = 6, XII = 12, XXIII = 23, LI = 51, CII = 102, etc. Prefixed to V and X, it diminishes them by 1: IV = 4, IX = 9. (In ME. MSS. and early printed books these symbols are very frequent instead of the corresponding words, being usually written with a point before and after, thus, ‘he hadde .iiii. c. knyghtes’.)

1450 W. Somner in Four C. Eng. Lett. 4 He, with ij or iij of his men. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., I, in the ordinary Roman way of numbering, signifies one; and when repeated, signifies as many units as it is repeated times.

6. Math. In Higher Algebra, i or ι is often used for the imaginary quantity √ - 1 , square root of minus one. In Quaternions, i, j, k are symbols of vectors, as distinguished from scalars.
7. a. In Physics I (rarely i) is the symbol of the quantum number of nuclear spin. [Adopted by Back and Goudsmit 1928, in Zeitschr. f. Physik XLVII. 175.]

1930 Pauling & Goudsmit Struct. Line Spectra xi. 203, i is a new quantum number, the nuclear spin quantum number. 1932 Bacher & Goudsmit Atomic Energy States 20 The spectrum of bismuth, for which the nuclear moment I is 4½, is an interesting example of this type of hyperfine structure. 1966 D. H. Whiffen Spectroscopy iii. 22 Intrinsic nuclear angular momenta are quantised and may be expressed as Iħ where I..is called the spin quantum number. 1967 [see F III. 1 k].

b. Occas. used as the symbol of the quantum number of isospin (more commonly T).

1953 Progress Theoret. Physics IX. 420 In general, selection rules are intimately connected with the conservative quantities which we shall inquire for a system involving Fermions. Those are the total angular momentum J and the total isotopic spin I of the system. 1962 A. Ramakrishnan Elem. Particles & Cosmic Rays i. 31 We use the symbol t for the isotopic spin operator of a system of particles and τ for a single particle, their eigenvalues being denoted by T and I respectively.

III. Abbreviations. (Abbreviations cited here with full stops are frequently used without them.) I. = various proper names, as Isaac, Isabella, India, etc.; formerly also = Jesus; I (Zool.) in dental formulæ = incisor; I., Intelligence (see also I.Q. below); I (Chem.) = Iodine; † i. the earlier equivalent of i.e. = id est; I.A.A., indoleacetic acid (indolylacetic acid); I.A.E.A., International Atomic Energy Agency; I.A.T.A., International Air Traffic (or Transport) Association; I.B.A., Independent Broadcasting Authority; I.B.M., (a) intercontinental ballistic missile; (b) International Business Machines (used to denote the computers made by this firm); I.C., (a) in charge, in command; (b) integrated circuit; (c) (Linguistics) immediate constituent; I.C.A., Institute of Contemporary Arts; I.C.A.O., International Civil Aviation Organization; I.C.B.M., intercontinental ballistic missile; I.C.E., internal combustion engine; I.C.F.T.U., International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; I.C.I., Imperial Chemical Industries; I.C.S., Indian Civil Service; I.D., identification, identity (card); I.D.A., International Development Association; I.D.B., illicit diamond buyer, buying; I.E., Indo-European; i.e., id est (L.), that is (to say); I.F., i.f., intermediate frequency (see intermediate a. and n. A. 3); I.F.F., Identification, Friend or Foe; I.F.R., Instrument Flight Rules; I.G.Y., International Geophysical Year; i.h.p. (Mech.) = indicated horse power; I.L.O., International Labour Organization; I.L.P., Independent Labour Party; I.L.S., Instrument Landing System; I.M.C.O., Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization; I.M.F., International Monetary Fund; I/O (Computing), input/output; I.P.A., International Phonetic Alphabet (or Association); i.p.s., inches per second; I.Q., intelligence quotient (see intelligence n. 8); I.R., infra-red; I.R.A., (a) individual retirement account (U.S.); (b) Irish Republican Army; I.R.B.M., intermediate range ballistic missile; I.R.O., International Refugee Organization; I.R.S., Internal Revenue Service (U.S.); ISBN, International Standard Book Number; cf. SBN s.v. S 4 a; I.S.O., (a) Imperial Service Order; (b) International Organization for Standardization; IT, information technology; I.T.A., Independent Television Authority; I.T.A., i.t.a., initial teaching alphabet; I.T.U., International Telecommunication Union; I.T.V., Independent Television; I.U., i.u., international unit; I.U.(C.)D., intrauterine (contraceptive) device; I.V., i.v., intravenous(ly); also as n., an intravenous drip, injection, etc.; I.W.W., Industrial Worker(s) of the World. See also IHS and IOU in their alphabetical places.

c 1265 Voc. N. Plants in Wr.-Wülcker 554/3 Artimesie, *i. mugwrt, i. merherbarum. 1641 French Distillation (1651) i. 40 Then invert it (i) turn it upside down.

1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., In abbreviatures and ciphers *I frequently represents the whole word Jesus.

1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings iv. 87 An air reconnaissance is essentially the observer's show; its main object being to supply the ‘*I’ people at headquarters with private bulletins from the back of the German front. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 125, I, the Service abbreviation for ‘Intelligence’, i.e. information of military value. 1972 G. Lyall Blame the Dead xiii. 86 ‘What were you in?’ ‘{oqq}I{cqq} Corps.’

1947 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. CLXIX. 465 Indoleacetic acid (*IAA) tends to stimulate growth in the light. 1969 New Scientist 7 Aug. 272/1 Isolated bacteria were cultured and shown to form IAA from the amino acid tryptophan.

1958 Times 20 Jan. 6/4 Mr. Robert McKinney, United States member of the *I.A.E.A. board of governors. Ibid., The United States last year already declared its intention to match all contributions of materials to the I.A.E.A. made by other countries up to June, 1960. 1958 P. Noel-Baker Arms Race p. xvii, IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency (established in Vienna, October 1957). 1963 Times 28 Sept. 6/7 Sir Roger Makins, chairman of the British Atomic Energy Authority and chief delegate to I.A.E.A.

1931 Flight 20 Mar. 255/1, I..submitted therefore to the International Air Traffic Association, *IATA, a suggestion for organising, at the earliest possible moment, a general European air mail net. 1962 Daily Tel. 11 Sept. 12/3 The continuance of rate-cutting could not be tolerated if IATA was to continue its work. 1970 Internat. & Compar. Law Q. 4th Ser. XIX. i. 125 It is something of a surprise that the United States Government and the International Air Transport Association (IATA)..should be proposing a system of absolute liability.

1971 Guardian 12 Nov. 1/8 The Sound Broadcasting Bill..authorises the new stations under the control of the Independent Television Authority—renamed the Independent Broadcasting Authority... The *IBA could be advanced up to {pstlg}2 millions to set up the services. 1971 Times 12 Nov. 8/5 The IBA would have the same obligation in radio to devote sufficient time to accurate and impartial news.

1954 *I.B.M. [see ballistic a. d]. 1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 402 Reports from the United States referred to a rocket called I.B.M. (intercontinental ballistic missile), a wingless rocket-shaped device already perfected to travel 2,500 miles and expected to have a range of 5,000 miles in due course. 1955 R. J. Schwartz Compl. Dict. Abbrev. 89 I.B.M., International Business Machines. 1956 S. Bellow Seize the Day (1957) ii. 42 When he saw the two sums punched out so neatly on the cards he cursed the company and its IBM equipment. 1956 A. Huxley Adonis & Alphabet 109 Thanks to finger-printing, punched cards and IBM machines, they know practically everything about practically everyone. 1963 I. Fleming On H.M. Secret Service i. 16 Bond's mind ticked and whirred, selecting cards like an IBM machine. 1970 Amer. Jrnl. Physics XXXVIII. 1294/2 Computations on the jth particle velocity..have been carried out on the Oberlin College IBM 360/44.

1928 T. E. Lawrence Let. 19 July (1938) iv. 615 No, I am not adjutant, to this camp. Just typist, and *i/c files, and duty rolls. 1958 Spectator 15 Aug. 219/1 If you were i/c security, it was obviously necessary to flush the lavatories of spies. 1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File viii. 51 The above named article of War Department property..should be returned to officer i.c. special issue room. 1965 Listener 11 Nov. 763/2 The commanding officer; the 2 I.C.; the adjutant.

1947 R. S. Wells in Language XXIII. ii. 81 We aim in this paper to replace by a unified, systematic theory the heterogeneous and incomplete methods hitherto offered for determining immediate constituents (hereafter abbreviated *IC, plural ICs). 1953 Language XXIX. 88 Shannon has conducted experiments in ordinary English orthography, and the reviewer has conducted similar ones, with the proper audiences, in terms of phonemic notation, the results of which bear on the stated correlation between IC-analysis and information theory. 1962 B. M. H. Strang Mod. Eng. Struct. vi. 79 They are immediate constituents (ICs), i.e. the forms that directly go to make up that which is under analysis. They themselves have ICs. 1965 Canad. Jrnl. Ling. Fall 45 Chomsky develops..IC analysis by his grammatical model of ‘phrase structure + transforms’. 1971 D. Crystal Linguistics iv. 212 In IC analysis, however, such disambiguation was impossible.

1966 Electronics 17 Oct. 87 The major problems in using *IC's. 1969 New Scientist 18 Dec. 601/3 The IC memory is three times faster than the conventional memory. 1970 ‘J. Earl’ Tuners & Amplifiers ii. 28 In a few years' time the majority of radio tuners will carry ICs as well as a few transistors and junction diodes.

1958 Listener 20 Nov. 842/1 At the *I.C.A. there is an exhibition of three collagists. 1969 Ibid. 27 Mar. 436/3 The ICA has taken us aback by giving some public performances of a radio work, reproducing it stereophonically in a darkened theatre.

1947 Times 17 May 3/5 (headline) Italy nominated for *I.C.A.O. 1955 Sci. Amer. Jan. 94/3 The specialized agencies of the United Nations..ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). 1963 Thorn Electr. Industr. Group Profile 25 The system has been approved..by the ICAO.

1955 Newsweek 30 May 13 The Air Force is now calling the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile the Italy nominated for *ICBM. 1956 Spaceflight Oct. 24/1 The relatively small margin in performance between the I.C.B.M. and a satellite vehicle suggests that great use will be made of it in the future. 1965 I. Fleming Man with Golden Gun ii. 28 Their U-boat fleet and their ICBMs.

1950 Chambers's Encycl. XV. 586/2 *I.C.E.: see Internal Combustion Engine. 1958 Listener 20 Nov. 835/2 The present advanced state of the internal combustion engine, or ‘I.C.E.’ as my log-book calls it. 1968 Economist 25 May 45/3 But now a modern version of the steam engine has appeared as the major threat to the ICE.

1955 Times 30 May 4/4 First, the *I.C.F.T.U. will continue its fight to ensure that all workers' rights are respected. 1968 Telegraph (Brisbane) 18 Apr. 10/2 Mr Mick Jordan..represents the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)—a world-wide anti-Communist union body.

1934 H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiogr. II. viii. 638 Brunner Mond & Co. was only the embryo of *I.C.I. 1964 M. Gowing Britain & Atomic Energy 1939–1945 ii. 75 I.C.I. offered to take over..the Halban and Kowarski research.

1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 May 390/3 The late Ross Scott, *I.C.S. 1957 J. Masters Far, Far the Mountain Peak iii. 27 If Peter has really made up his mind to go to the I.C.S.—it will be wonderful. 1971 Shankar's Weekly (Delhi) 18 Apr. 22/4 The Prime Minister called the ICS Secretaries of the Central Departments some weeks ago and admonished them.

1955 R. J. Schwartz Compl. Dict. Abbrev. 90 *Id, identification. 1963 T. Pynchon V. xiii. 373 Pig was understandably nervous, trying simultaneously to salute, produce ID and liberty cards. 1965 New Statesman 3 Dec. 880/3 ‘ID's’..are pretty obscure to English readers as translations..of..papiers (identity documents). 1968 A. Diment Bang Bang Birds v. 75, I had the usual range of forged driver's licences, ID cards, credit chits. 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 7/1 Once inside I was forced to produce my driver's licence, draft card, student I.D. 1971 Leader (Durban) 7 May 1/1 The loss of the money was not important. I am more concerned about my ID card, as I am presently applying for a house in Unit 10. 1972 J. Ball Five Pieces Jade ii. 21 Tibbs was politely asked for his ID. He produced his police credentials.

1961 Ann. Reg. 1960 472 The major development among international agencies was the establishment of the International Development Association (*I.D.A.). 1965 Economist 26 June 1512/2 The World Bank's ‘soft-loan’ subsidiary, the International Development Association (IDA), already lends for up to fifty years.

1884 M. A. Carey-Hobson At Home in Transvaal II. xlii. 520 ‘The fellow had money there, with which he turned *I.D.B.’ ‘What's that?’..‘Illicit diamond buyer.’ 1886 W. M. Kerr Far Interior I. i. 15 In spite of the vigilance of the detective department a great deal of illicit diamond buying is successfully carried on; hence the well-known ‘IDB’, which refers to the illegal trade. 1909 H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay ii. i. 122 Barmentrude..used to be an I.D.B.—an illicit diamond buyer. 1917 New Statesman 17 Nov. 150/1 To represent the typical Bolshevik as a German agent..is just as clever and fair as to try to make out that an I.D.B. from the Rand..is the type of a British Imperialist. 1972 P. Driscoll Wilby Conspiracy (1973) xiii. 163 He does a bit of IDB on the side. So what? He's a jeweller.

1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. iii. §3. 45 He dwelt in Pethor by the river, *i.e. saith the Chaldee Paraphrast, in Peor of Syria by Euphrates. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 26 Under favourable conditions, i.e. in the perfect State.

1894 V. Henry Compar. Gram. Eng. & Ger. v. 113 The greater part of such roots as began with the group in question exhibited already in the *I.-E. period a peculiar alternation. 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Ling. viii. 307 The I-E language family is represented all over the world today.

1927 H. J. Round Shielded Four-Electrode Valve viii. 77 It should be possible to do with only one stage of intermediate frequency on account of the gain per stage in H.F. and *I.F. 1956 Tibbs & Johnstone Frequency Modulation Engin. (ed. 2) ix. 387 Second channel interference can be avoided by choosing the i.f. to be greater than half the band of frequencies to be covered. 1963 J. A. Walston Transistor Circuit Design xxiii. 321 The difference frequency (IF frequency)..must be such that the transistor will function as an amplifier.

1945 Electronic Engin. XVII. 686 An *I.F.F. unit can be briefly described as being a transmitter-receiver device installed in friendly aircraft whose purpose is to reply to the interrogation of the friendly Radar station. 1961 Listener 30 Nov. 909/1 The I.F.F. radar identification sets in our bombers.

1948 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LII. 90/1 The biggest factor affecting reliable running is the time difference between operations under clear and low visibility conditions, C.F.R. (Contact Flight Rules) and *I.F.R. (Instrument Flight Rules) as they are called. 1964 Times Rev. Industry Apr. 40/3 Under IFR, electronic navigation equipment defines the position, and facilitates landing in bad weather or at night.

1955 Sci. News Let. 15 Jan. 42/1 Scientists from at least 39 countries, including Russia, are now making plans for coordinated research efforts during 1957–58 in a world-wide investigation of the earth, its seas and air. The many-pronged attack, aimed at a better understanding of the planet we live on, is known as the International Geophysical Year, or *IGY. 1964 Economist 11 Jan. 128/3 The IGY lasted 30 months.

1894 Times 20 Sept. 4/6 With an expenditure of 110 *i.h.p.

1924 B. Webb Diary 8 Jan. (1956) i. 2 The P.M. to meet Thomas, the French head of the *I.L.O. at Geneva. 1969 Listener 1 May 614/3 We're going to give legislative backing to the ILO conventions on the right to join trade unions.

1893 G. B. Shaw Let. 24 Apr. (1965) 390 My remarks..were not levelled at the *I.L.P. 1917 A. Huxley Let. 12 Nov. (1969) 136, I suppose it would pain the poor Duke too much if he sat in Parliament as a member of the I.L.P. 1932 Auden Orators iii. 104 The Simonites, the Mosleyites and the I.L.P. 1946 Koestler Thieves in Night ii. 91 Max, who has an enormous, sniffing tapir-nose and an unkempt I.L.P.-mane. 1959 Listener 22 Jan. 179/3 A number of intellectuals and I.L.P-ers.

1947 Shell Aviation News No. 108. 3/1 *I.L.S. (Instrument Landing System), G.C.A. (Ground Control Approach), ground radar and flight radar are all proven, available, and should be installed. 1966 New Scientist 13 Jan. 65/1 The special Trident has been trying the ILS of other airports,..and has actually made ‘hands-off’ landings at them.

1954 Chambers's Encycl. World Survey 42/2 The Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (*IMCO). 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 6/2 After the Torrey Canyon disaster the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) turned to the machinery of the international convention on safety of life at sea to try to establish rules that would ease the threat of pollution.

1948 G. Crowther Outl. Money (rev. ed.) ix. 330 The main purpose of the *I.M.F...is to provide countries that have deficits with the foreign currencies they require to cover those deficits. 1965 New Statesman 23 Apr. 632/2 A determination to invoke the scarce currency clause in the IMF agreement to legalise discrimination against chronically surplus countries.

1964 CIS Gloss. Automated Typesetting (Composition Information Services) 19 Input-output (*I/O), a general term for the equipment used to communicate with a computer and the data involved in the communication. 1977 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 42 The disparity in the speed of electromechanical I/O and electronic components resulted in ineffective use of the more expensive resources. 1985 Personal Computer World Feb. 163/1 It also includes ‘I/O redirection’ and ‘pipes’.

1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. vi. 103 There has arisen a convention of transcribing British English, not by the symbols..in accord with the principles of the *IPA alphabet. 1954 Pei & Gaynor Dict. Ling. 105 I.P.A., The International Phonetic Alphabet. 1961 Amer. Speech XXXVI. 201 The modified IPA symbols used in the [linguistic] Atlas. 1970 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1968 l. 5 The phonetic notation used in transcribing the responses of the informants is..a finely graded phonetic alphabet based on that of the IPA.

1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 104/2 *I.P.S., abbreviation for inches per second. 1968 Times 29 Nov. p. ii/1 The rise of the tape recorder was attested by the publication of commercial tapes at 7½ i.p.s.

1922 R. S. Woodworth Psychol. xii. 274 Brightness or dullness can also be measured by the intelligence quotient, which is employed so frequently that it is customarily abbreviated to ‘*I.Q.’ 1948 A. Huxley Let. 3 June (1969) 582 Cecil Burt sees a drop in the average intelligence of the British population..of 5 IQ points before the end of the present century. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 150 Any man in the infantry or cavalry who has a good I.Q. is sure to have his name turned up..whenever a new typist is needed. 1968 Scottish Daily Mail 16 July 2/1 The questionnaire is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the IQ tests which the U.S. Government gives would-be employees. 1972 Science 20 Oct. 232/2 The IQ tests ignore much in us that is artistic, contemplative, and nonverbal.

1957 Which? Autumn 7/2 An investigation into the effects, on bottle-makers, of the infra-red and ultra-violet (often referred to as *I.R. and U.V.) radiations. 1967 Electronics XL. 127/1 A scope tracing that shows i-r energy as a curve derived from the video signal, with the amount of energy determining vertical deflection.

1921 G. B. Shaw Matter with Ireland (1962) 245 The *I.R.A. is flushed with success. 1932 Morning Post 23 Aug. 10/3 A force of 200 men of the I.R.A. have seized Donamon Castle. 1939 J. B. Priestley Let People Sing ii. 24 So they thought he was the I.R.A., eh? That explained the bomb, of course. 1959 New Statesman 7 Nov. 615/2 The IRA is now really discredited; young men in the dreary pubs which offer the only way out of the drearier provincial towns of Ireland must find other amusements than plotting. 1971 Guardian 11 Aug. 10/2 The IRA and the Provisionals use the South as a sanctuary.

1974 Forbes (N.Y.) 15 Nov. 139/1 Moneymen call these new pension plans *IRAs (individual retirement accounts). 1984 Sun (Gainsville, Florida) 3 Apr. 6b/3 It's been just two years since nearly everybody was invited to open an individual retirement account (IRA), but it's time to assess..how skillfully you're exploiting this tax shelter.

1957 Economist 30 Nov. 774/2 *IRBMs are to begin flowing to Europe by late 1958. 1960 Ibid. 30 July 460/3 In April the official defence policy was laid in ruins with the abandonment of Britain's IRBM, Blue Streak.

1947 Times 15 May 5/7 Resettlement will still remain one of the main features of the *I.R.O. 1948 Hansard Commons 11 Mar. 1531/1 I.R.O. consented to act as our agents. 1955 Sci. Amer. Jan. 95/1 IRO (International Refugee Organization).

1963 Listener 7 Mar. 412/1 The *I.R.S. takes good care that the United States citizen abroad knows just where he stands, taxwise. 1964 Financial Times 12 Mar. 24/3 The attitude of the I.R.S. in 1958, after they had caught up with Mr. Wilson, was to say: ‘We're not concerned with your troubles.’ 1972 New York Law Jrnl. 22 Aug. 4/4 (heading) IRS issues rulings on political dinners.

1969 Proc. Internat. Assoc. Technol. Univ. Libraries Dec. 51 Every book is labelled by an *ISBN and each edition, each binding..allotted its own ISBN. 1986 Bookseller 3 May 1776 (Advt.), Where to Fish..{pstlg}11.95 net..Printed case. ISBN 0-948807-00-8. Heavily illustrated.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 340/1 The members of the order have the distinction of adding the letters *I.S.O. after their names. 1909 Whitaker's Almanack 118 Thos. H. Sanderson Sanderson, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., I.S.O.

1947 N.Y. Times 2 Nov. 22/6 Howard Coonley..has been elected president of the new International Organization for Standardization, formation of which has been completed by delegates from twenty-five nations meeting in London... Gustave L. Gerard..has been chosen vice president of the new organization which will be known informally as *ISO. 1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 400/1 The equipment covered by this plan is standard ISO 20 ft steel containers with fork-lift pockets, and standard 40 ft ISO aluminium containers.

1982 Times 14 Jan. (Information Technol. Suppl.) p. iv/6 Teletext and personal computers are *IT, but Hollywood movies on a video machine are probably not. 1983 Listener 21 Apr. 38/1 IT includes banking and shopping via your television set.

1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 385 While viewing through *I.T.A. stations would not be possible for some time, competitive bidding for ‘stars’ went on actively. 1962 Rep. Comm. Broadcasting 1960 1 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) IX. 259 There is a distinction to be drawn..between the ITA and independent television (ITV). The ITA is the Authority, the public corporation set up by the Television Act, 1954: independent television comprises not only the ITA but also the programme companies.

1965 Guardian 2 Feb. 3/8 Mr Gordon Walker.., adviser to the *ITA foundation,..would have to learn more about the initial teaching alphabet. 1967 New Statesman 6 Oct., All the mothers know everything about O- and A-levels, have taken the measure of the 11-plus.., and some have heard of i.t.a.

1950 Chambers's Encycl. XI. 470/1 The International Telecommunations Union (*I.T.U.). 1962 B.B.C. Handbk. 113 The BBC also participates in the work of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations with its headquarters in Geneva.

1958 ‘A. Gilbert’ Death against Clock 93 All they talk about is what they saw on *ITV last night. 1958 Spectator 27 June 827/3 As the General Election approaches, both BBC and ITV must know where they stand. 1969 Listener 24 Apr. 559/3 While shepherds washed their socks by night And turned on ITV, The Angel of the Lord came down And switched on BBC.

1950 Chambers's Encycl. XIV. 347/2 The League of Nations standard or requirement for vitamin B₁ is 300 *I.U. per day. 1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 339/1 The chief food value of apricots lies in their roughage and in their vitamin A content—approximately 1,000 i.u. per serving. 1962 Lancet 6 Jan. 12/1 A small bottle..of some 60 ml. capacity, filled to the top with normal saline and containing 1000 i.u. of heparin.

1963 New Scientist 19 Dec. 716/3 A simple, cheap, safe and effective method of birth control..known as IUCDs (intrauterine contraceptive devices). 1966 New Statesman 18 Mar. 370/1 The IUCD consists of a small loop or coil of plastic material which is inserted into the uterus.

1965 New Scientist 27 May 606/3 When as occasionally happens, conception occurs and gestation proceeds with the *IUD in situ, [etc.]. 1967 Time 7 Apr. 73 The IUD's underlying principle traces back to an old practice of Arab cameleers: putting a round, smooth stone in the womb of a female camel at the start of a long trade journey, to avoid the economic loss of having the animal get pregnant. 1973 Guardian 29 June 13/3 With the nationalisation of birth control virtually every GP in the country will be inserting IUDs.

1951 Dorland's Med. Dict. (ed. 22) 766/2 *I.V., abbreviation for intravenously (by intravenous injection). 1961 Amer. Speech XXXVI. 145 I.V.,..an intravenous infusion. 1970 New Yorker 21 Nov. 64/2 One of the doctors from Surgery will be coming down soon to put in your I.V. and a stomach tube. 1971 Guardian Weekly 24 Apr. 5/1 The bedside IV feeding bottle. 1972 Nature 8 Dec. 351/1, 3 African green monkeys were inoculated i.c. (0·2 ml.) and i.v. (0·3 ml.).

1917 B. Hall Diary 25 July in Hall & Niles One Man's War (1929) 278 The Government had some trouble in Los Angeles with the *I.W.W. 1919 H. L. Wilson Ma Pettengill vii. 212 Even the youngest [girl]..had tenaciously held out for a grown man's pay, which made her something even worse than a Bolshevik; it made her an I.W.W. 1920 M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism II. iv. xviii. 356 Similiar views..led in 1905 to the formation of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). 1957 Encounter Apr. 65/1 That strange and unique contribution of America to anarcho-syndicalism, the ‘Wobblies’ (officially the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW..) organised great masses of unskilled workers and led strikes..that were as much social rebellions as economic conflicts. 1969 Taft & Ross in Graham & Gurr Violence in Amer. viii. 285 Unlike the other national federations.., the IWW advocated direct action and sabotage.

Add: [III.] INF, intermediate-range nuclear force(s); cf. TNF s.v. *T 6 a.

1981 Washington Post 14 Nov. a13/3 The TNF talks on European-based missiles are increasingly being referred to as the Intermediate-range Nuclear Force (*INF) talks. 1983 Time 31 Jan. 22/2 Some who know him suggest that Nitze is now driven to achieve an INF treaty as a sort of final professional capstone. 1987 P.-H. Renard in R. Trapp Chemical Weapon Free Zones? 96 They have never been the subject of arms control negotiations, as opposed to conventional (MBFR) or nuclear (INF) arms.

INLA, Irish National Liberation Army, formed in the mid-1970s as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party.

1979 Irish Times 2 Apr. 1/3 Sources say that the *INLA is known to include men who are held responsible for much of the 1972 violence. 1983 Listener 19 May 8/3 The most important Provisional to have gone over to the INLA last year is Dominic McGlinchey from Bellaghy in County Londonderry. 1992 Independent 15 Apr. 3/2 In 1990, another INLA man—later reported to be an informer—was killed by undercover troops in an attack on the home of a member of the security forces.

I.O.C., International Olympic Committee.

1938 Olympische Rundschau (Berlin) Oct. 36 Mr. J. W. Rangell has been elected second representative of Finland on the *IOC. 1971 L. Koppett N.Y. Times Guide Spectator Sports xx. 247 According to the I.O.C., its members are not ‘representatives’ of their nations but ‘delegates from’ that nation to the I.O.C. and delegates to their nations from the I.O.C. 1991 Business Traveller Jan. 33/1 So endemic has drug-taking become among modern athletes that the IOC will have a flying laboratory ready for testing the Olympic class of 1992.

IVF, in vitro fertilization (esp. of human ova).

1978 BioScience XXVIII. 685/1 Members of the new HEW Ethics Advisory Board (EAB) seemed ready to approve the only human *IVF research application now awaiting funding at the National Institute of Health. 1990 Sunday Correspondent 6 May 3/3 An interim licensing authority..says the Government is throwing away an opportunity to reduce the IVF death rate.

Add: [III.] ISDN = integrated services digital network s.v. *integrated a. b.

1974 Internat. Conf. Communications (Inst. Electr. & Electronic Engineers) 33e-1 An integrated services digital network (*ISDN) is a network in which the various services such as telephony, data and telex use the same switching and transmission facilities. 1986 E. L. Scace in T. C. Bartee Digital Communications iii. 87 One part evolution, one part revolution, and one part philosophy, ISDNs represent a unique historical development. 1993 Daily Tel. 24 Feb. 30/7 Now..network operators worldwide have in place national ISDN services..which are simple to use, simple to install and simple to run. Ibid. 30/8 Britain's ISDN network is already connected to 12 other countries.

▸ IAP n. Computing = Internet access provider n. at Internet n. Compounds.

1994IAP Wish List in alt.internet.services (Usenet newsgroup) 1 May *IAP wish list... If you can spare the time, would you mind jotting down a few things along the theme of what you would want from an Internet Access Provider. 1999 L. Lessig & P. Resnick in S. E. Gillett & I. Vogelsang Competition, Regulation, & Convergence ix. 149 The responsibility for assuring a supply of sender labels might be assigned to intermediaries, in this case to the sender's IAP.

▸ IBS n. Med. = irritable bowel syndrome at irritable adj. Additions c.

1977 Amer. Jrnl. Clin. Nutrition 30 1597 Lactose malabsorption may play a role in the symptoms in the population of some patients with *IBS. 1985 Scand. Jrnl. Gastroenterol. 20 Suppl. cix. 107 About five per cent of the adult population each year will see their doctor with complaints that are finally characterised as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). 2000 Healthy Living Feb. 44/2 In a German IBS study, patients who took a homeopathic dose of the herb Asafoetida experienced vastly greater relief than did those administered a placebo.

▸ ICU n. Med. (orig. U.S.) intensive care unit.

1959 N.Y. Times Mag. 15 Nov. 103/1 When a patient is in critical condition, or for some other reason needs constant watching by professional nurses, the patient is sent to *ICU. 2001 L. Voss To be Someone 64 This was the hospital they brought her to because it has an ICU and plastic surgery.

▸ IDP n. = internally displaced person at internally adv. Additions.

1993E. Mihalkanin in R. F. Gorman Refugee Aid & Devel. vi. 88 The civil war created approximately 620,000 *IDPs by 1984. 2006 Africa News (Nexis) 22 Feb. The..protracted 18-year war..has obliterated the physical and economic infrastructure and confined more than a million people in IDP camps surviving on donor aid and handouts.

▸ IED n. improvised explosive device.

1978 Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbrev. Dict. (ed. 6) I. 457/1 *IED, improvised explosive device. 1987 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Apr. 10/4 Experiments in Northern Ireland had shown the makers of IEDs were so proud of their work they left their initials on the bombs. 2007 Atlantic Monthly June 91/2 Their new drill sergeants gather in the shade, trading stories about IEDs and RPG attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

▸ IMEI n. Telecomm. International Mobile Equipment Identity, a number unique to a GSM mobile phone and usually printed on it, comprising information that can identify the instrument to the network; freq. attrib.

1991 FITCE Jrnl. No. 4 33/1 The Equipment Identity Register is a logical entity within the GSM system, which is responsible for storing the International Mobile station Equipment identities (*IMEI). 2001 Daily Tel. 11 Jan. i. 11/8 The easiest way to improve phone security would be for all mobile phone networks to use an electronic fingerprint, a so called IMEI code. 2005 2600 Summer 50/2 Do you have an old T-mobile phone that you want on prepaid without paying for the activation?.. All you need is the SIM card number, the IMEI number of the phone, and a prepaid airtime card.

▸ IMHO phr. (also imho) colloq. (used chiefly in electronic communications) in my humble opinion; (occas. also) in my honest opinion.

1984Re: Info wanted on Beta Tapes in net.video (Usenet newsgroup) 23 Feb. The Sony and Maxell tapes are, *imho [in my honest opinion], almost indistinguishable in quality, and are the only kind I buy now. 1993 E. S. Raymond New Hacker's Dict. (ed. 2) 236 IMHO, mixed-case C names should be avoided, as mistyping something in the wrong case can cause hard-to-detect errors. 2001 D. Mitchell Number 9 Dream 51 A decent rain will bring hundreds of umbrellas. Not the most inspiring job, but it beats leaping around a garage forecourt or delivering pizzas, imho.

▸ IMO phr. (also imo) colloq. (used chiefly in electronic communications) in my opinion.

1989Re: DECwindows: does it use DECnet, TCP or Both? in comp.windows.x (Usenet newsgroup) 18 Jan. DEC is finally beginning to get serious (*IMO) about competing in the real world workstation market. 1997 J. Seabrook Deeper v. 174 To propagate idiocy regarding e-mail as viruses.., is, IMO, aggressively and dangerously stupid, not charmingly naive. 2003Re: Latif vs Gilly in rec.sport.cricket (Usenet newsgroup) 13 Feb. [He] said that he was happy with the resolution. Time to move on, imo.

▸ IP n. Computing = Internet Protocol n. at Internet n. Compounds; freq. attrib.

1979 J. B. Postel Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 758. 3 In the Internet Protocol (*IP) (44) there is a field to identify the next level protocol... This field is called Protocol in the IP header. 1992 UNIX Today! 17 Feb. 56/3 Other sources of public IP networking have started up in the U.K. 1997 J. Seabrook Deeper v. 161 To move around the computers, you had to know their names, or their IP addresses. 2000 Times 3 Aug. (Appointments Network Executive section) 1/2 (advt.) A UK network giving customers access to one of the world's largest IP backbones.

▸ IPA n. = India pale ale n. at India n. Additions.

[?a 1880 Label: Phillips & Wigan, Mortlake Brewery (Bodl. Libr., John Johnson Coll.: Labels, Box 13) Please cork & return cask when empty. E.I.P.A. [i.e. East India Pale Ale].] 1953 Word for Word (Whitbread & Co.) 23/1 India Pale Ale (*I.P.A.), name originally given to a fine pale ale made for export to troops in India. 1957 J. Braine Room at Top xxx. 247 ‘Will you have a drink with me?’ ‘IPA, please.’ 2001 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 22 Nov. g3/1 Every brewery produces either an IPA or an American pale ale.

▸ IPO n. Stock Market = initial public offering n. at initial adj. and n. Additions.

1976 Barron's Nat. Business & Financial Weekly 19 July 3/1 The flow of *IPOs, while still below the frantic pace of 1969, is running well ahead of last year. 2001 Financial Director Feb. 28/3 He was anticipating taking on another IPO or turnaround opportunity.

▸ IRC n. Computing = Internet Relay Chat n. at Internet n. Compounds.

1989Re: Multiparty, Real-time, Lightweight Sequenced Communications in comp.sources.d (Usenet newsgroup) 10 Feb. I have recently got ahold of a program called *irc (Internet Relay Chat). 1993 Mixmag Apr. 34/1 IRC..enables people to deconstruct aspects of their own identity, and to challenge and obscure the boundaries between some of our most deeply felt cultural significances. 1995 Guardian 24 Mar. 3/4 As my screen oozes with IRC pickup lines, I wonder whether it's worth it to stick around. 2000 ‘Dr. K.’ Compl. Hacker's Handbk. v. 53 The moment you show your nick on an IRC channel like {hash}hack or {hash}phreak you will be making yourself a target for all sorts of mischief.

▸ ISP n. Computing = Internet service provider n. at Internet n. Compounds.

1992 InfoWorld 14 Sept. 62 *ISPs are the data network equivalent of telephone companies, providing access to the main Internet network for end-users. You will need to contact an ISP in order to use the Internet. 1997 Independent 5 Aug. (Network Plus section) 7/1 Most ISP and academic institutions run web caches, so if you want to do your bit to reduce Internet congestion, use it! 2001 Contact May 66/3 You'll have the choice of entering your own settings to use the machine with an existing web account, or of setting up a connection to a new ISP.

▸ ITU n. Med. (chiefly Brit.). intensive treatment (also therapy) unit.

1970 Nursing Times 5 Nov. 1471/1 An *ITU containing five beds was opened in May. 1998 G. Adams Casualty (BBC TV production draft) 13th Ser. Episode 6. 44 They evacuated it in theatre and he's up in ITU.

▪ II. I, pers. pron., 1st sing. nom.
    (aɪ)
    Forms: see below.
    [OE. ic = Goth., OFris., OLG. (Fris., LG., Du.) ik, OHG. ih (MHG., mod.G. ich), ON. ek, eg (Norw. eg, Sw. jag, Da. jeg):—OTeut. *ek, ik = OSl. azŭ, Lith. aż, L. ego, Gr. ἐγώ(ν, Skr. ahám:—primitive type *egóm, *egō. The OTeut. ik is supposed to have originated as the unstressed or enclitic form of ek, and to have become at length the general form. Of ic, as of its cognates ego, etc., no inflexional forms are known; the oblique cases of the singular are supplied from a stem me- common to the whole Aryan family. The plural nom. we has a Germanic form *wî-z (Goth. weis, OHG. wîr, ON. vér), from a primitive stem wei-, Skr. vay-ám; its oblique cases are from a stem uns- (:—*ṇs), co-radicate with L. nos, Skr. nas. Thus the inflexion of the pronoun is supplied from four distinct roots. Besides the sing. and pl., OE. had also a dual = we two, us two, which survived into early ME. and was in use after 1200. The original accusative forms became obs. at an early date, so that in later OE., as in ME. and mod.Eng., this case was levelled with the dative. The OE. genitive case was also declined as an adj. (the possessive pronoun), and already in ME. mīn (mī) was confined to this use, while ūre, our(e retained certain genitival uses almost to the close of the ME. period: see our. The paradigm of the pronoun is thus as follows:

    Old English.
    Singular.Dual.Plural.
    Nom.icwitwe, wē
    Acc.mec; me, mē*uncit; unc{uacu}sic; {uacu}s
    Dat.me, mēunc{uacu}s
    Gen.m{iacu}nuncer{uacu}ser; {uacu}re
    Poss. Pron.m{iacu}nuncer{uacu}ser; {uacu}reMiddle English.
    Nom.ic, ich; iwit (witt)we (weo)
    Dat. Acc.meunc (unnc)us, ous
    Gen.[not found][not found]ure, ur, oure, our
    Poss. Pron.min, miunkerure, ur, oure, ourModern English.
    Nom.I[obs.]we
    Dat. Acc.me[obs.]us
    Poss. Pron.
    absol.mine[obs.]ours
    adj.my[obs.]our

    OE. ic remained in ME. as ic, ik in the north; in midl. and south it was early palatalized to ich (ɪtʃ). In north and midl. the final consonant began by 12th c. to be dropped before a consonant, the pronoun being in this position reduced to i; in the 14th c. ik and i were still used before vowel and consonant respectively in the north, but I alone appears in north and midl. after c 1400. In the south, ich remained much longer, esp. before an initial vowel, in which position, also, it was in 16th c. commonly reduced to ch, in writing conjoined with the verb, as in cham I am, chave I have, chill I will, chot I wot (initial h and w being elided). Before a consonant, ch was sometimes extended to che, as in Shakespeare's ‘che vor' ye’; and, in the forms ich, utch, ch-, che, or utchy, the pronoun remained in s.w. dialects till the 18th or first half of the 19th c. The simple vowel i, to which the pronoun was elsewhere reduced, was in course of time diphthongized (as ɪ, əi, ɛɪ, or æɪ); at first prob. only when under stress, but at length when unstressed also; a relic of the earlier unstressed form remains in north Eng. dialects in the enclitic pronoun following a verb, which is still (ɪ) or (iː), as in wad-I ‘would I’, did-I, pronounced waddy, diddy (ˈwadɪ, ˈdɪdɪ). In most northern dialects a new unstressed form originated from the diphthongal I by dropping the second element, and retaining the first (ə) as eh, a; by the lengthening of this again there has been developed a new stressed form (æː, ɑː, ɔː), written ah, aa, aw, oa, which is now the ordinary form of the pronoun in north Eng. and Sc. dialects.
    The ME. ic, ik, ich, were also spelt yk, ych(e; i varied with j or I (the MS. character for these being often the same), also with y, Y, and finally at the introduction of printing settled down as I. Both i and ich were often written in combination with the verb, as in idude I did, icham I am, ichill I will; these last were often erroneously divided by later scribes and printers as I cham, I chill (also erratically spelt c'ham, ch'am, etc.).
    The history and uses of the oblique forms will be found in the separate articles me, mine, my, our, ours, etc.]
    A. I. 1. Illustration of Forms.
    (α) 1–4 ic (2–3 Orm. icc, 3 ig, 3–4 hic), 4 ik (yk, ike, hyc).

c 725 Corpus Gloss. 526 Convenio, ic groetu. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John vii. 29 Ic hyne can, and ᵹif ic secge þæt ic hine ne cunne, ic beo leas. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 13 Þenne sende ic eou rihte widerunge and ic eou wille ȝeuan wela. c 1200 Ormin Ded. 11 Icc hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh Godd⁓spelless hallȝhe lare. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 315 Ic wene ðat ic and eue hise wif sulen adam bilirten. Ibid. 34 Queðer so hic rede or singe. c 1300 Havelok 304 For..noble shrud, That hic haue youen hire to offte; Hic haue yemed hire to softe. Ibid. 686 For litel ig do the lede To the galues. c 1300 Cursor M. 23921 (Edin.) For med ik [Cott. ic] ask a litil bon Þat ik [Cott. i] beseke wit wordis quon. Ibid. 24797 (Edin.) Þis ilke tim þat ike [Gött. i] of sai. c 1310 in Rel. Ant. I. 146 The lif that hyc ledh. 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 384 As Ic hard say. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 228 Ac I swere now, so the ik, þat synne wil I lete. c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's Prol. 13 But ik [v.r. yk] am oold, me list no pley for Age.

(β) 2–6 ich (3 hich, 3–6 ych, 5 yche, 5– 6 iche). β¹. 2–3 ih, ihc. β². ich was combined with its verb, with elision of h or w; e.g. icham, ichave, ichill, ichot; by later scribes often wrongly divided i cham, i chill, y choulde, etc. Also so theech = so thee ich, so may I thrive! β³. Subsequently, in s.w. dial., initial ich became ch joined to a verb; e.g. 6–8 cham, chwas, cha, chave, chad, chill, chould, chard (= I heard): see ch, 'ch. β⁴. Later, in s.w. dial., ch' became che.

β c 1160 Hatton Gosp. John viii. 14 Ich wat hwanon ich com, and hwider ich ga. a 1225 Ancr. R. 8 Þe þinges þet ich write her. a 1275 Prov. ælfred 576 in O.E. Misc. 134 Hich þe wile sagen soþe þewes. a 1300 Vox & Wolf 36 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 59 Be stille, ich hote, a Goddes nome! c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 916 Now wyf quod he, heere nys but thou and I..Leuere ich hadde to dyen on a knyf Than thee offende, trewe deere wyf. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. i. 14 Esteward ich byhulde after þe sonne, And sawe a toure, as ich trowede. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 1382 As yche vnder⁓stonde. c 1450 Lonelich Grail lii. 692 Mochel lever hadde Ich here to dye. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xiii. 207, I must haue reuerence; why, who be ich? a 1529 Skelton E. Rummyng 219 Ich am not cast away. 1561 J. Awdelay Frat. Vacab. 8 My maysters, ich am an old man, and halfe blinde. 1568 T. Howell Arb. Amitie (1879) 89 With cap and knee, ich will serve thee, what should ich more declare. 1589 in Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 213 Iche pray you good mother tell our young dame, Whence I am come and what is my name. c 1645 T. Davies Somersetsh. Man's Compl. i. (E.D.S.), Dost thinke 'chill labor to be poore, No no, ich haue a-doe..Ich will a plundring too. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Ich, a Word us'd for I in the Western Parts of England.

β¹ c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 75 Ih ileue gode..ich ileue þet god is. Ibid. 77 Þe worde þet ihc speke to ou of mine muþe. a 1250 Owl & Night. 866 Thar-to ich helpe, God hit wot! Ne singe ih hom no foliot. a 1300 K. Horn 981 Ihc habbe walke wide Bi þe se side. c 1300 Havelok 1377 Ihc haue ther offe douthe and kare.

β² a 1225 Juliana 12 Ichulle leoten deor to teoren ant to luken þe. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8359 Ich..abbe..iholpe er ywis & ȝut icholle her after more. c 1300 Harrow. Hell 71 Wost thou never whet ycham? a 1327 Death Edw. I in Pol. Songs (Camden) 247 Ycholde, ȝef that y myhte. c 1330 Amis & Amil. 945 Yif y swere, icham forsworn. c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 619 Lat be, quod he, it schal not be, so theech [v.rr. thee ich, þeche, theche, þeiche]. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 536 Cudberth of Dereham, he sayde, ychame. a 1529 Skelton E. Rummyng 1 Tell you I chyll, If that ye wyll. 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. i. (1870) 122 Iche cham a Cornyshe man. c 1566 Merie Tales of Skelton in S.'s Wks. (1843) I. p. lxvi, I cham sicke; I chill go home to bed. 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. iv. xi, I chill look to you.

β³ 1529–1746 [see ch pron.]. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 108 By Iys cham a shamd. Ibid., Cha forgote it quight. At shrift chad my pater noster. Ibid. 141 Chil ley my gowne. 1567 Damon & Pythias in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 72 Chill say no more, lest I offend. 1575 Gammer Gurton ii. i. in Dodsley O.P. II. 25 And channot sumwhat to stop this gap, cham utterly undone. 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie 459 By my vaye, chame more wearye..than yif chad gone to plowe all this daye. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 250 Chill picke your teeth Zir. c 1645 T. Davies Somersetsh. Man's Compl. ii. (E.D.S.), 'Chill sell my cart & eake my Plow. 1746 Exmoor Scolding (E.D.S.) 244 Chad et in my Meend, and zo chave still. Bet chawnt drow et out bevore tha begen'st agen, and than chell.

β⁴ 1568, 1594 [see che]. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 246 Keepe out che vor'ye. ? 16.. Plain Truth in Reliq. Anc. Eng. Poetry (1823) III. 127 Ah! ah! che zmell the now, man; Che know well what thou art.

(γ) 2–4 i, (3 hi, 3–4 j, e), 4–6 y, 5 Y, 4– I. γ¹. i- (y-), combined with following verb: formerly esp. frequent with contracted verbs, where an apostrophe is now inserted, as in ide = I'd, I had, ild = I'd, I would, ile, yle = I'll, I will, ime = I'm, I am, ise, ice, i'sh = I s', I shall, ive = I've, I have. So Sc. I'nk, aa'nk = I think. γ². -i, -y, appended enclitically to verbs; e.g. ami, cani, havy, haddy; mod. dial. -y or -ee.

γ 1154 O.E. Chron. an. 1137 §3, I ne can ne i ne mai tellen alle þe wunder. a 1240 Ureisun in Cott. Hom. 197 Hwar ich was and hwat i dude. a 1240 Wohunge ibid. 283 A hwat schal i nu don? a 1275 Prov. ælfred 336 in O.E. Misc. 123 Hi ne sawe it nocht. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 110/139 Hire heþene name ne j nouȝt telle. a 1300 Cursor M. 25408 To þe mak j mi bon. c 1300 St. Margarete 107 For him ic wole þane deþ afonge: y nabbe þerof no doute. 1382 Wyclif Matt. xiv. 27 Haue ȝe trust, I [1388 Y] am; nyl ȝe dreede [1526 Tindale, It is y, be not a frayed]. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 31 So hadde I spoken with hem euerychon That I was of hir felaweshipe anon. c 1399 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 9 Among the ten comandementz y rede. 1411 in E.E. Wills (1882) 19 Also y be-queyth to William my son an aburioun of stele. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour Prol. 1 But a litelle y reioysed me. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 30 As I haue sayde (therfore) I say agayne. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 51 b, I Charles went nexte to hym. 1611 Bible Gen. ix. 9, I, behold I, establish my covenant with you. 1653 W. Basse in Walton's Angler iii. 80, I care not, I, to fish in seas. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. xviii. (1840) 320 They have all been as bad as I. 1722 ― Col. Jack (1840) 46, I could not tell money, not I. 1816 Scott Antiq. viii, ‘I’, ‘And I’, ‘And I’, answered many a ready voice.

γ¹ c 1200 Moral Ode 2 in Trin. Coll. Hom. 220 Ich wealde more þan idude. Ibid. 4 Þeih ibie a winter eald. a 1240 Lofsong in Cott. Hom. 217 Ibileue on ðe holi goste. 1533 J. Heywood Pard. & Frere in Hazl. Dodsley I. 231 By Jis, I'sh lug thee by the sweet ears! Ibid. 232 I'sh knock thee on the costard. 1567 Triall Treas. (1850) 9 If you will giue me leaue, yle tell ye howe. Ibid. 14 Ise teache you to speake! 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. iv. 38 Ile be a Candle-holder and looke on. 1598 ― Merry W. v. i. 1 Go, Ile hold. 1605 ― Lear iv. vi. 246 Ice try whither your Costard, or my Ballow be the harder. 16.. Fair Rosamund (in Percy Reliq.), Nay, death Ild rather chuse! 1657 Trapp Comm. Ezra x. 44 Ile meddle with none of them. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 308 I'd a better Opinion of thy Spirit!

γ² c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 129 Ne ami noht crist. c 1300 Harrow. Hell 43 Hard gates hauy gon. a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. x. 37 Navy the none harmes to hethe. c 1310 in Rel. Ant. I. 146 Fayrer ho [= on] lond hawy non syen..Thar for amy cummen here. Ibid., Wit my roc y me fede Cani do non othir dede. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 14892 Seint Bede so herdy telle. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §1 Than haddy..the ful experience. Ibid. §40 Thus hauy 2 degrees. 1790 Mrs. Wheeler Westmld. Dial. 55 Mun E maak a bit a Braad Mudder. 1828 Craven Dial., I is sometimes pronounced like E, particularly when the pronoun follows the verb, as ‘do-E’, for I do.

    B. Senses and constructions.
    I. As pronoun.
    1. a. The pronoun by which a speaker or writer denotes himself, in the nominative case, as the subject of predication, or in attributive or predicative agreement with that subject.
    See examples above, under head A.
    b. Sometimes = I, if I were you (he or she).

1846 G. E. Corrie 25 Mar. in M. Holroyd Mem. xi. (1890) 241, I should not be too strict about the ‘artificial flowers’.

c. Sometimes qualified by an adj.

1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 171 Poore I was slaine, when Bassianus dy'd. 1687 Death's Vis. iii. (1713) 4 Alas! What shall poor I become? 1690 Dryden Don Sebastian Epil. 4 Poor I to be a nun, poor you a friar. 1693 ― Roundelay i, Wretched I, to love in vain!

2. Sometimes used for the objective after a verb or preposition, esp. when separated from the governing word by other words.
This was very frequent in end of 16th and in 17th c., but is now considered ungrammatical.

1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 321 All debts are cleerd betweene you and I. 1600 ― A.Y.L. i. ii. 18 My father hath no childe but I. c 1600 ― Sonn. lxxii, And hang more praise upon deceased I. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. v. iii, Brayne-worme ha's beene with my cossen Edward and I, all this day. 1649 Nicholas Papers (Camden) 136 To give you and I a right understanding of those particulars. 1698 Vanbrugh Prov. Wife v. ii, It must all light upon Heartfree and I. Ibid., Between you and I. 1710 S. Centlivre Bickerstaff's Burying 14 Leave your Lady and I alone. 1744 J. Steuart Letter-Bk. (1915) 449 The postscript to your letter..gave my wife and I unexpressable joy. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. iii, Let you and I cry quits. 1866 Harper's Mag. Jan. 162/2, I have heard him..make a bet that ‘between you and I’ is correct, and refuse to be convinced of his error. 1959 N.Z. Listener 25 Sept. 11/2, I have heard ‘between you and I, old man’, and ‘people like you and I’, from graduates in some arts other than the art of speech. 1971 Guardian 20 Aug. 24/4 ‘There were two grilles between Eugene and I, and we must have been about six feet apart,’ she said. 1972 J. Rossiter Rope for General Dietz ii. 24, I was sure they were looking for Michael and I. 1973 Oxford Mail 27 Aug. 4/4 After showing photographer Bill Radford and I her stitching skill she went back to the tea table.

3. In mod. s.w. dial. used as an emphatic objective.

a 1859 Cupid's Garden in Hughes Scouring White Horse vii. (1859) 180 Let thee and I go our own waay, And we'll let she go shis'n. 1859 Barnes Hwomely Rhymes 20 How you do muddle! Gi'e I the spade. 1863 ― Dorset Gram. (Philol. Soc.) 23 We should say unemphatically ‘Gi'e me the pick’..but emphatically ‘Gi'e the money to I, not he’. 1877 Elworthy W. Somerset Gram. 35.

II. As substantive.
4. a. The pronoun regarded as a word.

1599 Broughton's Let. ii. 8 The Cleerer of Diuinitie, the I per se I, and the belweather of Diuines. 1722 Wollaston Relig. Nat. ix. 185 It would be the same as to say the soul of the soul, or the body of the body, or the I of me. 1859 Hare Guesses Ser. i. (ed. 5) 94 The proudest word in English, to judge by its way of carrying itself, is I. 1874 Helps Soc. Press. v. (1875) 66 An ‘egotistical fellow’, as you call him..presses forward with his ‘I, I, I’, simply because, perhaps unjustly, you do not recognise that ‘I’ sufficiently. 1883 Westcott Ep. John (1886) 220 The unchanged and unchangeable ‘I’ of the Word.

b. another I = a second self.

1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1545) 140 My frende is as who shuld say an other I. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 48 At al times another I, in all places the expresse Image of myne owne person. 1614 Sylvester Panaretus Wks. (1621) 855 That same other I.

5. Metaph. The subject or object of self-consciousness; that which is conscious of itself, as thinking, feeling, and willing; the ego.

1710 Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. §139 What I am myself—that which I denote by the term I—is the same with what is meant by soul or spiritual substance. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. vi. iv. i. III. 193 The Question is, ‘What constitutes the ‘we’ or ‘I?’ and, ‘Whether the I of this instant, be the same with that of any instant preceding, or to come’. 1764 Reid Inquiry i. §3 How do I know that..the I of this moment is the very individual I of yesterday? 1829 Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 75 A Manifestation of Power from something which is not I. 1870 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. viii. 152 Man is not an independent unit; a self-centred, self-sustaining I. 1874 W. Wallace Logic Hegel §20. 32 ‘I’, in the abstract, as such, is the mere act of concentration or reference to self. 1891 E. B. Bax Outlooks fr. New Standpoint iii. 199 The I which we think of when we say myself..is not the true I, the I that is thinking, but merely a pseudo-I, a synthesis of thoughts and feelings reflected in this I, which are immediately or intuitively identified with that I.

6. The narrator of a work of fiction, appearing on his own account. Also attrib. or as adj.

1946 ‘G. Orwell’ in Observer 10 Feb. 3/3 The ‘I’ of the story describes himself as a Democrat. 1962 John o' London's 19 Apr. 372/1 The tendency for novelists to move away from the ‘I’ kind of storytelling. 1965 English Studies XLVI. 390 The point of view of the ‘I’ narrator is perfectly maintained throughout the tale. 1969 Listener 30 Jan. 151/3 The ‘I’ of David Martin's tense and elusive story.

III. Phrases containing I and its verb, taken substantively: I say, a mere assertion; I will, a formula of promise, e.g. in marriage; I know not what (= F. je ne sais quoi), the unknown, unintelligible, or inexpressible. I AM, the Lord Jehovah, the Self-existent. Also in weakened colloq. use: a (self-)important person.

1611 Bible Exod. iii. 14 And God saide vnto Moses, I am that I am: And he said, Thus shalt thou say vnto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me vnto you. 1634 Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 241 His proofs are always beggarly, I says, or ifs, and may be sos. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 332 Which the rest of mankind, feeling only by the effect,..term the je-ne-scay-quoy, the unintelligible, or the I know not what. Ibid. II. 413 Whatever is commonly said of the unexpressible, the unintelligible, the I-know-not-what of beauty. 1772 T. Olivers Hymn, ‘The God of Abraham praise’ viii, Jehovah—Father—great I AM, We worship Thee. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. Concl., Her sweet ‘I will’ has made you one. 1884 H. Conway in Harper's Mag. Dec. 147/2 Both bride and bridegroom said their ‘I wills’ in..low tones. 1915 D. H. Lawrence in Signature 18 Oct. 8 David dancing naked before the Ark, asserting the oneness, his own oneness, the one infinity, himself, the one God, I AM. 1926 S. T. Warner Lolly Willowes iii. 184 Jim thought himself quite a Great I AM. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley x. 131, I am a cypher. You are the great I-am! as far as life goes. a 1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald Last Tycoon (1949) vi. 138 ‘Get one that can talk—tell him to bring one of his books along.’ He spoke as if he wanted to meet a member of the ‘I am’ cult. 1954 W. Faulkner Fable 57 Lifting its voice against the Absolute, the ultimate I-Am. 1965 N. Gulbenkian Pantaraxia xi. 227 Cyril Radcliffe..did not take the short-cut favoured by so many of his colleagues who say..: ‘I am the great I am, Queen's Counsel.’ 1970 D. Francis Rat Race i. 13 He had none of the ‘I am’ aura which often clings around the notably successful.

Also I and Thou, I-and-Thou. In the theology of M. Buber: describing a relationship between two people, as opposed to that between a person and an object. Also attrib.

1937 R. Smith tr. Buber's Ich-Du (title) I and Thou. 1958 D. M. Baillie Out of Nazareth xxii. 157 Divine realities can only be known in a personal ‘I-and-Thou’ relationship. 1968 L. Berg Risinghill 64 Such teachers had never seen their pupils as fellow human beings before, as Martin Buber's ‘I’ and ‘Thou’.

Hence I-ety nonce-wd., I-hood, I-ness, I-ship, (Metaph.), conscious personality; I-ism, (a) Metaph., the reference of all things to one's own consciousness, egoism; (b) nonce-wd., the frequent use of ‘I’, egotism of style; I-now (Metaph.), the subject of present consciousness.

1835 Mrs. Carlyle in Lett. (1883) I. 18 In spite of the honestest efforts to annihilate my *I-ety.

1662 Sparrow tr. Behme's Rem. Wks., Apol. conc. Perfection 118 The Man Christ is..the First who in the Anointing dyed to the Humane *I-hood. Ibid., 2nd Apol. to Tylcken 17 He inclineth himself to my Minehood, and my Ihood inclineth it self up into him. 1871 Macmillan True Vine iii. (1872) 82 He has no autarkia, or self-sufficingness—no ichheit, or I-hood, as the Germans would say.

1840 Fraser's Mag. XXII. 620 The oneism, the *I-ism of the German, making for each individual his own mind the centre of his universe. 1848 Geo. Eliot in J. W. Cross Life (1885) I. 191 Your affectionate letter demanded some I-ism. 1886 Illustr. Lond. News 4 Dec. 598/2, I wonder whether any other writers..often fall into the sin of ‘I, I, I-ism’.

1891 E. B. Bax Outlooks fr. New Standpoint iii. 184 Being..is simply transfigured *I-ness. Ibid. 189 Both alike are modes of I-ness.

Ibid. 200 This distinction is..traceable to that between the *I-now, which thinks and presents, and the thing thought considered per se, that which is thought and presented in it... The thinking and presenting I-now may be regarded as the material.

a 1834 Coleridge Lit. Rem. (1839) IV. 232 Who can comprehend his own..personeity, that is his *I-ship (Ichheit).

     ▸ I and I pron. (also I an' I, I&I, I'n'I) (orig. and chiefly in Rastafarian usage) used as a uniform personal pronoun (esp. first-person, plural or singular); I, me, my; we, us, our; (also occas.) you, he, her, etc.
    Used to emphasize the concept of oneness, important among Rastafarians, who believe that all people are seen as one in the eyes of God or Jah.

1975B. Marley So Jah Seh (song) in Natty Dread (album) Down here we suffer. But I and I. I hang on in there And I and I. I nah leggo. 1976 Crusader (St. Lucia) 9 Oct. 5 Right now, I an' I greatest problem is that dem don't want I an' I in de Concrete, but when I an' I move up country, dem send police to hunt I an' I down and bring I an' I back to the Concrete. 1985 Guardian (Nexis) 1 Oct. They not like I and I Rasta. They have no love for they fellow men like I and I. 1993F. D'Aguiar Dread in Brit. Subj. 16 He spoke through that smile at me. 'I an' I don't need anyone to speak for I. 2000 N. Barlay Crumple Zone 221 Cee, you wanna know wha' I an' I tink... Get rid of whatever needs getting' rid of.