self

Meaning

Noun

1. One individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.
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. A seedling produced by self-pollination (plural selfs).
6. A flower having its colour uniform as opposed to variegated.
7. 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).

Pron

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

Verb

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

Adj

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. 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).

Opposite of

nonself

Synonyms

oneself

ego

own

person

🧑‍🦱

identity

same

himself

individual

itself

herself

alone

by oneself

body

personality

identical

ourselves

I

myself

nature

proper

self-interest

soul

one’s self

just

magnetism

in-person

ass

🍑

nothing

face

only

even

character

auto

personal

private

not adapted

reflexive

atman

self-confidence

selfhood

not different

selfish

self same

selves

sen

separate

not other than

subjectivity

themselves

voluntary

Translations

même

zelf

soi-même

selbst

moi

Selbst

stesso

kendi

Ich

mismo

vanzelf

xwe

io

yo

öz

Pronounced as (IPA)

/sɛlf/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: self

Inherited from Old English: self

Cognate with Gothic: 𐍃𐌹𐌻𐌱𐌰

Cognate with German: selbst

Cognate with Dutch: zelf

In summary

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.