self

Pronunciation

• IPA: /self/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English self, inherited from Old English self (“one's own person; same”) (also seolf, sylf),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *selbaz.^[2][3][5] Its cognates include Old Saxon self, Old High German selb, German selbst, Dutch zelf and Old Norse sjálfr,^[3][2][4] and Gothic has silba.^[3][2] Its further origin is unknown according to Hoad and the SOED;^[5][4] Barnhart calls it obscure, but notes that many scholars take it as a compound of the reflexive pronoun stem Proto-Indo-European *se-, found in Latin sē (“oneself”) and German sich.^[3][6] Watkins derives it from a suffixed form of *s(w)e-, the pronoun of the third person and reflexive.^[2][7] It is related to suicide.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Following a noun as an emphatic pronoun, “that very one”: before 900;^[8] Barnhart's first example is from about 725, in Beowulf.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old English self was used with a noun or pronoun, as in the man self,^[3] and with a personal pronoun it gave the reflexives such as him selfum, the source of himself.^[2][4] These intensive and reflexive pronouns later replaced the old construction.^[3][5] The adjective “the same, the very” is from Old English,^[5] now archaic except of a colour that is the same throughout, a use from 1562.^[9][5] From the 14th century there was a tendency to treat self as a noun meaning “person”,^[8] and the noun “an individual person” is from the 13th century.^[5][10] In philosophy, the self as the ego or the conscious subject is from 1641,^[9] and a person's individuality from 1595.^[9] A second self, a close friend, is from 1557.^[9] The verb “to fertilize with pollen of the same plant” is from 1905.^[8][10] Selfish is from the 17th century.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English self (Beowulf).^[3]
• 13th century – noun, an individual person.^[5]
• 1557 – a second self.^[9]
• 1562 – of a colour, uniform.^[9]
• 1595 – one's individuality.^[9]
• 1641 – the self in philosophy.^[9]
• 17th century – selfish.^[5]
• 1905 – verb, to self-fertilize.^[8][10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The whole, essential being of a person; the individual.
2. The qualities that set one person apart from others; individuality.
3. One's awareness of one's own being; the ego.
4. One's own interests or advantage.
5. (immunology) What the immune system recognizes as belonging to the body.

Pronoun

1. (informal) Myself, yourself, himself or herself: a ticket for self and wife.

Adjective

1. Of the same colour or character throughout.
2. Of the same material as the thing it is used with: a self belt.
3. (archaic) Same, identical.

Verb

1. To fertilize with pollen from the same plant.

Word family

• self-abuse
• self-care
• self-contained
• selfheal
• selfward
• selvage
• self-centered
• selfdom

Related words

• himself
• herself
• itself
• myself
• selfish
• selfsame
• suicide

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster