self

UK/ˈsɛlf/US/ˈsɛlf/

nounB1Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,950 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: selves

The self is the person you essentially are. A sense of self, my former self, true to yourself.

Whether there is a single continuous one is a genuine question rather than a rhetorical one — philosophers and psychologists both doubt it, and the sense of being one person over time may be a story the brain tells. As a prefix it is everywhere: self-service, self-respect. Note that the word is Old English.

Definitions of self

1nounselfThe person you essentially are.B1
“After months of illness, she's finally back to her old self.”

self is an identity.

Where it comes from

Old English self comes from a Germanic root meaning one's own. German selbst is the same word.

Middle English
self
English, today
self

From Middle English self. From Middle English salve, self, silf, from Old English self, seolf, sylf, from Proto-Germanic selbaz, from Proto-Indo-European selbʰ- (“one's own”). 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

self in the wild

The key advantage of self-propelled over towed artillery is that it can be brought into action much faster.
Self-propelled artillery
Both self-propelled and towed artillery remain in the arsenals of many modern armies.
Self-propelled artillery
Although self-harm is by definition non-suicidal, it may still be life-threatening.
Self-harm
Still, only a minority of those who self-harm are suicidal.
Self-harm
The primary obstacle to self-driving is the advanced software and mapping required to make them work safely across the wide variety of conditions that drivers experience.
Self-driving car

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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