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I so very often see these words and I understand they are contraction of nos and te with met, but what exactly do they mean? they often seem to be accompanied by ipse or one of its forms.
“Cum ego verbo utar,” Humpty Dumpty dixit voce contempta, “indicat illud quod optem – nec plus nec minus.” “Est tamen rogatio” dixit Alice, “an efficere verba tot res indicare possis.” “Rogatio est, “Humpty Dumpty responsit, “quae fiat magister – id cunctum est.”
Ah! Thanks Klewlis, I kinda thought so but was too insecure to assume it.
“Cum ego verbo utar,” Humpty Dumpty dixit voce contempta, “indicat illud quod optem – nec plus nec minus.” “Est tamen rogatio” dixit Alice, “an efficere verba tot res indicare possis.” “Rogatio est, “Humpty Dumpty responsit, “quae fiat magister – id cunctum est.”
-met is a suffix to emphazise a few pronouns, but not all pronouns.
We can translate '-met' with 'self, but actually it is not translatable!
In Latin it has not really the meaning of 'self', that's why the forms with m--met can be emphazised even more by 'ipse'.
The classical form is not 'tumet', but 'tute', and not 'semet', but 'sese'. This last one mostly is the best known of the series.
So if any one asks you if you want a candy and your sister yells 'ego', then your brother can even do better with 'egomet'. But you can do better than both of them by yelling 'egomet ipse'.
by Kasper » Tue Jan 06, 2004 5:35 am 
