Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The total, essential, or particular being of a person; the individual.
- noun The essential qualities distinguishing one person from another; individuality.
- noun One's consciousness of one's own being or identity; the ego.
- noun One's own interests, welfare, or advantage.
- noun Immunology That which the immune system identifies as belonging to the body.
- pronoun Myself, yourself, himself, or herself.
- adjective Of the same character throughout.
- adjective Of the same material as the article with which it is used.
- adjective Obsolete Same or identical.
- intransitive verb To fertilize or pollinate itself. Used of hermaphroditic organisms.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same; identical; very same; very.
- Own; personal.
- Single; simple; plain; unmixed with any other: particularly noting colors: as, self-colored.
- A pronominal element affixed to certain personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives to express emphasis or distinction, or to denote a reflexive use.
- noun A person in his relations to that very same person. Self differs from
ego as being always relative to a particular individual, and as referring to that person in all his relations to himself and not merely as given in consciousness. - noun A thing or class of things, or an attribute or other abstraction, considered as precisely distinguished from all others: as, the separation of church and state is urged in the interest of religion's self.
- noun Personal interest and benefit; one's own private advantage.
- noun In horticulture, a flower with its natural plain color; a self-colored flower, as distinguished from one which has become “rectified” or variegated. Compare
self-colored .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Obs., except in the compound selfsame. Same; particular; very; identical.
- adjective Having its own or a single nature or character, as in color, composition, etc., without addition or change; unmixed.
- noun The individual as the object of his own reflective consciousness; the man viewed by his own cognition as the subject of all his mental phenomena, the agent in his own activities, the subject of his own feelings, and the possessor of capacities and character; a person as a distinct individual; a being regarded as having personality.
- noun Hence, personal interest, or love of private interest; selfishness.
- noun Poetic. Personification; embodiment.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- pronoun obsolete
Himself ,herself ,itself ,themselves ; that specific (person mentioned). - pronoun
Myself . - noun An individual
person as the object of his ownreflective consciousness . - adjective obsolete
same
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person considered as a unique individual
- noun your consciousness of your own identity
- adjective (used as a combining form) relating to--of or by or to or from or for--the self
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
The word self has been adopted by Pamela. Help support Wordnik by adopting your own word here.
Examples
-
If the temporary coalition of conscious states that is winning at the moment is what I am, is the self, each temporal chunk of ˜self™ is likely to be found in different parts of the brain from other such chunks and there will be many NCCs of unified consciousness in many different places.
The Unity of Consciousness Brook, Andrew 2006
-
The impossibility of defining objects in terms of relativity to a finite self, conducts dialectically to the conception of the _absolute self_.
The Approach to Philosophy Ralph Barton Perry 1916
-
The means for this suppression of self _depends entirely on the development of the consciousness of self_.
Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic Sidney Lewis Gulick 1902
-
[34] I mean by the "lower self," not the animal base of one's existence, but the ordinary self _claiming to be the true self_, and so rising in rebellion against its lawful lord.
What Is and What Might Be A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular Edmond Holmes 1893
-
It all depends on what the man is _within_ himself, his intrinsic character, his _real self_; and no matter where he goes, that character, that self, goes with him.
-
Does it not mean a deeper heart, the heart of your own self, not of your body? of the _self_ that suffers, not pain, but misery? of the self whose end is not comfort, or enjoyment, but blessedness, yea, ecstasy?
Unspoken Sermons Series I., II., and II. George MacDonald 1864
-
What a contrast have we often thought he presents to some whose physiognomy looks like a piece of harsh handwriting, in which we can decipher nothing but _self, self, self_; who seem, both at home and abroad, to be always on the watch against any infringement of their dignity.
-
* Goes to kill self, realises there's not even enough money to buy rope to hang self*
Hecklerspray 2010
-
*unstiks self frum ceiling, drops, unharmd, onto carpit; begins grooming self*
no, no, NO! Mai mausie wuz - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2009
-
**tellz self tu leeve sum fur odders** **ignoars self** Nom nom nom!
the dog launcher - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2009
oroboros commented on the word self
On his death bed, with his final breath,one man said: "I have but one regret concerning my life: I regret each and ever time that I thought about myself, or said "I." The passion of my life was to see for myself the nature of Life, and yet by my useless thinking about myself, I blinded myself." And with those comments, his body sagged, his eyes opened wide, and his soul sailed home to the silent land of "No-Self." --Jan Cox
January 23, 2007
lbeaumont commented on the word self
I am looking for a word, analogous to "self", that refers to any other person. I am now using "other" but that is too general because it is not specific to another person; it can refer to another thing.
April 3, 2012
ruzuzu commented on the word self
Constitutive Other?
April 3, 2012
ruzuzu commented on the word self
(Have you read any continental philosophy? Otherwise I'd just recommend herself or yourself.)
April 3, 2012