narcissist

Etymology

The OED takes it as formed from English Narcissus + -ist, after narcissism;^[2] Etymonline and Dictionary.com likewise derive it from narcissism.^[3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Webster's Third instead give it as a borrowing of German Narzissist, from the name Narziss.^[5][6] Narcissism itself goes back to German Narzissismus, coined in 1899 by the German psychiatrist Paul Näcke in “Die sexuellen Perversitäten”, after a comparison made by Havelock Ellis in 1898;^[3][2] Klein instead credits the German word to Sigmund Freud.^[7] The name is from Latin Narcissus,^[8] from Ancient Greek Νάρκισσος (Nárkissos),^[3][8] the beautiful youth of Greek myth who fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and was turned into the flower; the story is told by Ovid in the “Metamorphoses”.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person characterized by narcissism, an excessively self-admiring person: 1917, in the Journal of Philosophy, Psychology & Scientific Methods.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the word to 1919,^[3] the 1989 edition of the OED to 1930,^[9] and Dictionary.com to 1920–30.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word arose in psychology together with narcissism, but by the time of Merriam-Webster Unabridged it was used generally for anyone given to excessive self-love.^[5][2] Narcissus himself had served as a figure of self-love since at least 1767.^[3] The adjective use, "excessively self-admiring", is recorded from 1934, in C. Day-Lewis.^[2] Dictionary.com also records the shorter form narcist.^[4]

Timeline

• 1917 – a person characterized by narcissism.^[2][5]
• 1934 – as an adjective, excessively self-admiring.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person with excessive self-love or admiration for themselves: He was too much of a narcissist to listen to anyone else.^[5][2]
2. In psychology, a person characterized by narcissism.^[5][2]

Adjective

1. Excessively self-admiring; narcissistic.^[2]

Related words

• narcissism
• narcissistic
• narcissus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press