self

English Online Dictionary. What means self‎? What does self mean?

English

Alternative forms

• selfe, silf, silfe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English self, silf, sulf, from Old English self, seolf, sylf, from Proto-Germanic *selbaz. Cognates include Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌻𐌱𐌰 (silba), German selbst and Dutch zelf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛlf/
• (Southern US, African-American Vernacular, dated) IPA^(key): /sɛf/
• Rhymes: -ɛlf

Pronoun

self (selves)

1. (obsolete) Himself, herself, itself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).
2. (commercial or humorous) Myself.

Noun

self (plural selves or selfs)

1. One individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.
   • 2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Ch.1, at p.7:

     John Locke argued that the mind is not like a furnished flat, prestocked before occupation with innate ideas, but like a home put together piecemeal from mental acquisitions picked up bit by bit. The self is thus the bit-by-bit product of experience and education: we are what we become - or, in Wordworth's later phrase, the child is the father of the man. Particular parents, surroundings and stimuli produce individuated selves. Identity is thus unique because contingent, the cumulative product of ceaseless occurrences.

2. The subject of one's own experience of phenomena: perception, emotions, thoughts.
3. An individual person as the object of the person's own reflective consciousness (plural selves).
4. Self-interest or personal advantage.
5. Identity or personality.
6. (botany) A seedling produced by self-pollination (plural selfs).
7. (botany) A flower having its colour uniform as opposed to variegated.
9. (molecular biology, immunology) Any molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign (nonself) molecule, cell, or tissue (for example, infective, allogenic, or xenogenic).

Synonyms

Antonyms

• (immunology) nonself

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Korean: 셀프 (selpeu)
• Sranan Tongo: srefi

Translations

See also

• self-
• person
• I
• ego

Verb

self (third-person singular simple present selfs, present participle selfing, simple past and past participle selfed)

1. (botany) To fertilize by the same individual; to self-fertilize or self-pollinate.
2. (botany) To fertilize by the same strain; to inbreed.

Antonyms

• outcross

Adjective

self

1. Having its own or a single nature or character throughout, as in colour, composition, etc., without addition or change; of the same kind; unmixed.

2. (obsolete) Same, identical.
3. (obsolete) Belonging to oneself; own.
4. (molecular biology, immunology) Of or relating to any molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign (nonself) molecule, cell, or tissue (for example, infective, allogenic, or xenogenic).

   Antonym: nonself

Derived terms

• selfbow

References

Further reading

• “self”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “self”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Self in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• “self”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• FLES, LSFE, elfs

Danish

Alternative forms

• self.

Adverb

self

1. (Internet slang) Abbreviation of selvfølgelig (“of course”).

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic سَلَف (salaf).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛlf/

Noun

self m

1. loan

Middle English

Alternative forms

• salve, silf, sulf

Etymology

Inherited from Old English self, from Proto-West Germanic *selb, from Proto-Germanic *selbaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛlf/, /silf/

Adjective

self

1. (the) (very/self) same, (the) aforementioned
2. Intensifies the pronoun or noun it follows or precedes; very
3. (+genitive) own

Descendants

• English: self
• Scots: self, sel

References

• “self, adj., n., & pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-31.

Pronoun

self

1. themself, themselves; a reflexive pronoun
2. that, this

Descendants

• English: self (obsolete in most pronominal senses)
• Scots: self, sel
• Yola: zil, zill

References

• “self, adj., n., & pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-31.

Noun

self (plural selfs)

1. (the) same thing, (the) aforementioned thing

References

• “self, adj., n., & pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-31.

Old English

Alternative forms

• seolf, sylf

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *selbaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /self/, [seɫf]

Pronoun

self

1. self; oneself, personally
   • late 9th century, translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History

   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of St. Augustine's Soliloquies

Declension

Derived terms

• selflīċ

Descendants

• Middle English: self, silf, sulf
  • English: self
  • Scots: self

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• selvo

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *selbaz.

Pronoun

self

1. self

Inflection

Descendants

• Low German: sulv