4. What does "ME" refer to in the first line of a dictionary entry?

Answer + Explanation:

ME would mean that the provenance (where it originally came from) of an English word would have been handed down to us from Middle English. I suspect that were you to scan, say, a poem in ME, you would hardly believe it had ever been English.

This notation indicates the origin of the word - that is, what language that word came into the English from. Any dictionary that gives a word's etymology will include these kinds of notations.

ME would mean that the provenance (where it originally came from) of an English word would have been handed down to us from Middle English. I suspect that were you to scan, say, a poem in ME, you would hardly believe it had ever been English.