self-reliant

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   depending on one's own abilities, judgment, or resources rather than on other people

   Years of solo travel made her calm and self-reliant in an emergency.

Formed from self- + reliant. Reliant is the participial adjective of rely, which came through Old French relier from Latin religare ("to bind fast"). The compound reverses the usual outward relation: a self-reliant person relies on his or her own powers.

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