selfness

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈsɛlfnəs/ UK /ˈsɛlfnəs/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
the quality of individual selfhood; egotism or self-regard

The mystics sought to dissolve the selfness that bound them to ego.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the quality of individual... selfhoodegotism individualityself-regard

Opposites

selflessness

Word family

Related forms selfselfhoodselfish

Etymology

From 'self' (Old English 'self', from Proto-Germanic *selbaz) + '-ness'.

self Old English *selbaz Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

# selfness

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈsɛlfnəs
**IPA (UK):** ˈsɛlfnəs

## Meanings
1. the quality of individual selfhood; egotism or self-regard

## Examples
- The mystics sought to dissolve the selfness that bound them to ego.

## Synonyms
- selfhood
- egotism
- individuality
- self-regard

## Antonyms
- selflessness

## Related Forms
- self
- selfhood
- selfish

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: self
- Root: *selbaz

## Etymology
From 'self' (Old English 'self', from Proto-Germanic *selbaz) + '-ness'.

## AI Etymology
Selfness comes from 'self' (Old English 'self', from Proto-Germanic *selbaz) + '-ness'. The historical chain includes Old English self and Proto-Germanic *selbaz. Older glosses in the chain include "self" and "-ness", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, selfness is best read as compound, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "the quality of individual selfhood; egotism or self-regard". related forms include self, selfhood, and selfish. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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selfness

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