# self

Pronunciation: say "SELF" /sɛlf/

## Noun

1. A person's own being, the inner 'I' that thinks, feels, and is aware of itself.
   - Simple: The person you are inside, the 'you' that thinks, feels, and knows itself.
   - _Meditation, he claimed, let him observe his own self with unusual clarity._
   - _The memoir traces how grief reshaped her sense of self over a decade._
2. An individual's personality, character, and disposition: the kind of person they characteristically are.
   - Simple: The kind of person someone is: their character and the way they act.
   - _The illness left him a shadow of his former self for months._
   - _He brings his competitive self to every board game, no matter how trivial._
3. Regard for one's own gain: the self-interest or personal advantage that motivates a choice.
   - Simple: A person's own gain or advantage, put before other things.
   - _The award honors volunteers who have consistently placed service above self._
   - _In his sermons he warns against the quiet pull of self that corrupts good intentions._

## Pronoun

4. A humorous or commercial way of referring to oneself; equivalent to 'myself,' as on a check, ticket or form.
   - Simple: A joking or business way to say 'myself,' used on checks, tickets and forms.
   - _Asked on the form who would collect the parcel, she simply wrote 'self'._
   - _The pass admits self and accompanying family for the weekend._

## Adjective

5. The very same; identical, pointing to one and the same thing. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The very same, not a different one.
7. Belonging to oneself; one's own, as distinct from another's. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Belonging to the person themselves, their own.

## Pronoun

6. Himself, herself, itself or themselves, the very person already mentioned. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Himself, herself, itself or themselves: the very person just named.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The molecules, cells and tissues of an organism's own body, which the immune system normally leaves alone rather than attacking as foreign.
- (adjective) Relating to a molecule, cell, or tissue that belongs to an organism's own body rather than a foreign one.
- (adjective) Having a single, uniform nature throughout: one color or composition, without addition, mixture, or change.
- (verb) To fertilize a plant with its own pollen, or to breed within a single line rather than crossing.
- (noun) A seedling produced when a plant pollinates itself rather than crossing with another individual.
- (noun) A flower whose color is uniform throughout rather than variegated or patterned.

## Origin

Proto-Germanic *selbaz gave Old English self (also seolf, sylf), which became Middle English self (also silf, sulf). Dutch zelf, German selbst, and Gothic silba are among its relatives in other languages.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/self (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).