Not meaningless, ptolemyauletes/spiphany. "O, mi!" means "O my dear/beloved (masculine)",—that, as a substantive, could be what blutoonwithcarrotandnail has a reference to.
Non sine significatione, ptolemyauletes spiphanyque; "O mi amor/amice care" significare potest quod in aliquo loco inveni canorcaeruluscarotaclavoque ut nomen substantivum.Otherwise, as you say //
Aliter, ut dicitis: "
O Virgili! mi!" = "O Virgili mi!" = "Oh, Virgil! My beloved!" = "Oh, my [dear/beloved] Virgil" or "Oh, my Tom" = "O, my dear Tom"
mi Tom! = 'My Tom', an oddity in English perhaps, but perfectly normal in Latin.
Not such an oddity in English where I come from, I must say, alongside "Our Tom!" (voc.), and "My man/woman/boy/girl/dear!" isn't so strange elsewhere, is it?
Dictum anglicum non novum in illâ regione ubi habito, dico, unâ cum "Thomas noster!"; similiter alibi quoàd "Mi/mea vir/puer/puella/mulier/care", nonné?
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.