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
- The whole, essential being of a person; the individual.
- The qualities that set one person apart from others; individuality.
- One's awareness of one's own being; the ego.
- One's own interests or advantage.
- (immunology) What the immune system recognizes as belonging to the body.
Pronoun
- (informal) Myself, yourself, himself or herself: a ticket for self and wife.
Adjective
- Of the same colour or character throughout.
- Of the same material as the thing it is used with: a self belt.
- (archaic) Same, identical.
Verb
- To fertilize with pollen from the same plant.
Word family
- self-abuse
- self-care
- self-contained
- selfheal
- selfward
- selvage
- self-centered
- selfdom
Related words
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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)
- ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster