"moi" (was: MWA! MWA!)

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:19 PM -0500 3/14/02, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>Jim Landau wrote:
>>
>>  "Moi" (French for "me") is not in the OED2.  I'll let you submit it, but you
>>  could probably find an earlier usage than Miss Piggy.
>
>Following up a bit late here, but _moi_ will probably be entered in
>OED3, with a first cite of 1760 and a second cite from 1930.
>Interdatings or antedatings welcome.
>
I know that sometime before Sesame Street, there were those who used
it in the particular context of a particular sort of query:  "Moi?",
whose best translation would probably be "Who, me?"  The intention is
often a kind of semi-ironic or false modesty and there's a
characteristic intonation I won't try to describe.  (My mother was
fond of using this particular "moi" for rhetorical effect.)  Are
there other uses (outside of French)?  It's kind of hard to search
without getting it in French contexts.

larry