Self Definition

sĕlf

selfs, selves

noun

selves

The total, essential, or particular being of a person; the individual.

American Heritage Medicine

The identity, character, or essential qualities of any person or thing.

Webster's New World

One's own person as distinct from all others.

Webster's New World

One's own welfare, interest, or advantage; selfishness.

Obsessed with self.

Webster's New World

That which the immune system identifies as belonging to the body.

American Heritage Medicine

Synonyms:

pronoun

Myself, yourself, himself, or herself.

A living wage for self and family.

American Heritage

Myself, himself, herself, or yourself.

Tickets for self and wife.

Webster's New World

(commercial or humorous) Myself.

I made out a cheque, payable to self, which cheered me up somewhat.

Wiktionary

adjective

Being uniform or the same throughout.

Webster's New World

Of the same material as the article with which it is used.

A dress with a self belt.

American Heritage

Of the same kind, nature, color, material, etc. as the rest.

A self lining, self trim.

Webster's New World

Same or identical.

American Heritage

Sir Walter Raleigh.

On these self hills.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

verb

To fertilize or pollinate itself. Used of hermaphroditic organisms.

American Heritage

(botany) To fertilise by the same individual; to self-fertilise or self-pollinate.

Wiktionary

prefix

Oneself; itself.

Self-control.

American Heritage

Automatic; automatically.

Self-loading.

American Heritage

Automatic.

Wiktionary

affix

Of oneself or itself.

Self-love, self-restraint.

Webster's New World

By oneself or itself.

Self-acting.

Webster's New World

In, within, or inherent in oneself or itself.

Self-absorption, self-evident.

Webster's New World

To, for, or with oneself.

Self-addressed.

Webster's New World

Automatic.

Self-loading.

Webster's New World

suffix

Used in forming intensive and reflexive forms of the singular personal pronouns.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Self

Noun

Singular:

self

Plural:

selves, selfs

Origin of Self

From Middle English self, silf, sulf, from Old English self, seolf, sylf (“same, self, very, own"), from Proto-Germanic *selbaz (“self"), from Proto-Indo-European *selbÊ°- (“one's own"), from Proto-Indo-European *s(w)e- (“separate, apart"). Cognate with Scots self (“self"), West Frisian self (“self"), Dutch zelf (“self"), Low German sulv (“self"), German selbst (“self"), Danish selv (“self"), Icelandic sjálfur (“self"). Possibly related to Albanian thelb (“core, center, heart").

From Wiktionary
Middle English selfsame from Old English s(w)e- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Middle English from Old English from self self self

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From self; compare Dutch -zelf.

From Wiktionary
ME < OE < self: see self

From Webster's New World College Dictionary, 5th Edition
From the noun self.

From Wiktionary