Self-conscious means awkwardly aware of how you look to other people. Every movement feels watched.
It takes about. The word describes discomfort rather than vanity, which is why being self-conscious about your accent or your height is something people admit to with feeling. There is a second and quite different sense in criticism, since a self-conscious style is one that draws attention to its own cleverness, and that use is a fault. Philosophy uses self-conscious to mean simply aware of oneself.
1adjectiveself-consciousUncomfortably aware of being observed by others.
“He was terribly self-conscious about his hands.”
2adjectivedeliberatelyDeliberately drawing attention to its own manner.
“It is a very self-conscious piece of writing.”
Middle English
self
English
self
English, today
self-conscious
From self- + conscious. self comes 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