Meaning of あくまで in あくまで私個人の意見です


What is the meaning of あくまで in the sentence あくまで私個人の意見です ?

ALC: back and edge, consistently GJiten: to the end; to the bitter end; to the
last; stubbornly; persistently; to the utmost

What nuance is added, compared to saying just 私個人の意見です ?

  * Is it more humble? (it's _only_ my opinion) 
  * Does it express a more persistent opinion?




あくまで comes from the verb 飽{あ}く plus the particle まで. The verb 飽{あ}く became
飽{あ}きる in modern Japanese, so if you can understand 飽きる and まで, then you can
understand how it came to describe doing something "to the end; persistently;
thoroughly" as in the edict gloss you gave above. This sense can be seen in
the example 「あくまでもがんばる」 "to persist until the bitter end".

From here, we can make a small leap to "thoroughly; completely". In the phrase
「あくまで青い」 "thoroughly blue", あくまで doesn't describe any _action_ being carried
out to the very end. It just means thoroughly or completely, which is a
slightly more figurative sense.

Now, let's look at your example, 「あくまで私個人の意見です」. There's no action being
described, so it can't be "to the end; persistently". You could say it means
"[it's] entirely my personal opinion", but what does _entirely_ mean here?
It's unlikely it means "entirely, as opposed to partially", because "it's
_partially_ my personal opinion" doesn't make much sense.

Instead, we can conclude あくまで has made one more figurative leap: it's being
used as an _intensifier_ (a word that shows emphasis). Therefore, we can
probably translate it as "[it's] _only_ my personal opinion" or "[this is]
_purely_ my personal opinion", because in these sentences _only_ and _purely_
function as intensifiers in much the same way as あくまで does in Japanese.

