meinetwegen

German

Alternative forms

• meinentwegen, meintwegen (both archaic)

Etymology

Shortened from von meinetwegen, which can be traced through two developmental routes. One route is from von meinentwegen / von meinent wegen, from von meinen wegen, from Middle High German von mînen wegen, in which wegen was the dative plural of modern-day Weg and mînen was the possessive pronoun in the dative plural.

Another route can be traced from von meintwegen / von meint wegen, from Middle High German von mînt wegen, from von mîn wegen, in which mîn was the genitive pronoun. See more at wegen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ̯nətˌveːɡən/, /ˌmaɪ̯nətˈveːɡən/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adverb

meinetwegen

1. because of me, for my sake

   Synonyms: (colloquial) wegen mir, (dated) meinethalben, (dated) wegen meiner

   Das ist alles meinetwegen passiert.

   All of this happened because of me.

2. (informal) as far as I'm concerned (I don't mind if); for all I care

   Synonyms: von mir aus, ruhig

   Meinetwegen können Sie mitkommen.

   As far as I am concerned, you can come with us.

Further reading

• “meinetwegen” in Duden online
• “meinetwegen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “meinetwegen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “meinetwegen” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.