methinks

[Aa01]

Methinks = It seems to me

Where did this phrase originate from?

[LeMarchand]

Methinks = I think, surely?

As in I think "The DaVinci Code" is hideously over-rated/Methinks "The DaVinci Code" is hideously over-rated.

[lampgb]

Old English

[Aa01]

Just out of interest, what's the book 'The DaVinci Code' like?

[LeMarchand]

If you want a fast-paced, entertaining read "The DaVinci Code" is pretty good. However, I just don't understand why people are taking its far-fetched (and fairly conclusively debunked) theories seriously. It's one of those books that you breathlessly read through to find out what's going to happen next but when you get to the end (if not before) you start to think "hang on, if..." and "surely if..."

[jno]

it's an old English construction, I believe - 'it thinks to me' was how they said 'I think'. Does sound a bit odd but there you go, they hadn't learnt to speak English proper in them days.

[Quizmonster]

It is a peculiar construct, as we might expect it to be 'methink' without the final 's', which is normally a third - rather than first - person singular verb-form. In its Old English format, as described by Jno above, it amounted to "it thinketh to me", the 'me' definitely being dative. In the 16th century, it actually took on the form 'my think', presumably to get around that apparent anomaly.
Today, it is just used as a joke in a pseudo-historical manner.

[Narolines]

Quick answer,Aa01 - don't waste your time reading it, it's drivel.!

[Peter Pedant]

Aa alot of languages have impersonal verbs

it rains (English), piget, placet, miseret in Latin

il plait French, dei and xri in Greek. - and Spanish but I wasnt listening that day....

a sort of bit later, you think, what good is 'it must' when I wanna say I must or you must.

and basically there are usually rules where the personal pronoun can be used but is in the accusative or dative.

Alot of the time meaning is sort of stretched. s'il vous plait for if it pleases you, and other times it is just crazy

(it musts you for you must). It is often easier to think, identify the accusative - OK that is the subject in the English, and then get hold of the verb - which is of course in the wrong form and just whack it after the pronoun.....and away you go.