US /ˈsɛlf/
adj noun pron Freq #2939

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    the person you really are, including your character and feelings

    After the holiday she felt like her old self again.

  2. 2
    noun

    a person's awareness of their own identity and existence

    Meditation can deepen your sense of self.

Thesaurus

Opposites
nonselfoutcross
Word family
Forms selves
Derived forms antiselfcatselfdreamselfego-selfno-selfnot-selfownselfpolyselfsalicideself-abuseself-careself-centered
Related forms egoipersonself-

Etymology

From Middle English salve, self, silf, from Old English self, seolf, sylf, from Proto-Germanic *selbaz, from Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ- (“one's own”). Cognates Cognates with Saterland Frisian sälven, säärm, sääuwen (“oneself”), West Frisian sels (“oneself”), Bavarian söbe (“identical, same”), söber (“self”), Dutch zelf (“myself, oneself”), German selber (“self”), selbst (“by oneself”), Luxembourgish selwer (“self”), Yiddish זעלב (zelb, “same”), Danish selv (“self”), Elfdalian siuov (“self”), Faroese sjálvur (“self”), Icelandic sjálfur (“self”), Norwegian Bokmål selv, Norwegian Nynorsk sjølv,…

View etymology graph ->

Topics

markdown

Send feedback

Optional — only if you'd like a reply.