From Middle High German mir (“me”), from Old High German mir (“me”), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀ, from Proto-Germanic *miz (“me”), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)me-, *(e)me-n- (“me”). Cognate with Old English mē (“me”). More at me. From Middle High German mir (“we”). The form originated through assimilation of wir with a preceding verb form and subsequent unetymological segmentation. This is possibly already an Old High German development, since a common Old High German ending of the 1st person plural was -em, thus bittēm wir → *bittē-mir (modern bitten wir (“ask we, do we ask”)). The contraction as such is definitely old, though the common form of assimilation, both in written Old High German and written Middle High German, is through loss of the nasal: bittē wir. The form with mir may either be a younger development in Middle High German, or a more colloquial form that only later appeared in writing. Older age is suggested by the great dominance of mir throughout modern dialects of High German. Compare Yiddish מיר (mir), Luxembourgish mir. Compare also Old Norse mit (“we two”), Norwegian Nynorsk me (“we”).