self

See also: Self, šelf, self-, -self, and self.

English

Alternative forms

  • (obsolete) selfe,
  • (obsolete, rare) silf, silfe

Etymology

From Middle English self, silf, sulf, from Old English self, seolf, sylf, from Proto-Germanic *selbaz.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sɛlf/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛlf

Pronoun

self

  1. (obsolete) Himself, herself, itself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).
    This argument was put forward by the defendant self.
  2. (commercial or humorous) Myself.
    I made out a cheque, payable to self, which cheered me up somewhat.

Noun

self (plural selves or selfs)

  1. One individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.
    • one's true self; one's better self; one's former self
  2. The subject of one's own experience of phenomena: perception, emotions, thoughts.
  3. An individual person as the object of his own reflective consciousness (plural selves).
    • (Can we date this quote?) Sir William Hamilton
      The self, the I, is recognized in every act of intelligence as the subject to which that act belongs. It is I that perceive, I that imagine, I that remember, I that attend, I that compare, I that feel, I that will, I that am conscious.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      The preposterous altruism too! [] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
    • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
      In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.
  4. Self-interest or personal advantage.
  5. Identity or personality.
  6. (botany) A seedling produced by self-pollination (plural selfs).
  7. (molecular biology, immunology) Any molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign (nonself) molecule, cell, or tissue (for example, infective, allogenic, or xenogenic).
    • 2000, Ristori, G, “Compositional bias and mimicry toward the nonself proteome in immunodominant T cell epitopes of self and nonself antigens”, in FASEB Journal: the official journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, volume 14, number 3, PMID 10698957, pages 431-438:
      Similarity profiles between helper T cell epitopes (of self or microbial antigens and allergens) and human or microbial SWISSPROT collections were produced. For each antigen, both collections yielded largely overlapping profiles, demonstrating that self-nonself discrimination does not rely on qualitative features that distinguish human from microbial peptides. However, epitopes whose probability of mimicry with self or nonself prevails are, respectively, tolerated or immunodominant and coexist within the same (auto-)antigen regardless of its self/nonself nature. Epitopes (on self and nonself antigens) can cross-stimulate T cells at increasing potency as their similarity with nonself augments.

Antonyms

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Verb

self (third-person singular simple present selfs, present participle selfing, simple past and past participle selfed)

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

Antonyms

Adjective

self

  1. Having its own or a single nature or character throughout, as in colour, composition, etc., without addition or change; of the same kind; unmixed.
    a self bow: one made from a single piece of wood
    a self flower or plant: one which is wholly of one colour
  2. (obsolete) Same, identical.
    • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I scene i:
      I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth
      That which I owe is lost; but if you please
      To shoot another arrow that self way
      Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
      As I will watch the aim, or to find both,
      Or bring your latter hazard back again,
      And thankfully rest debtor for the first.
    • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act I scene i:
      I am made of that self mettle as my sister.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World
      But were it granted, yet the heighth of these Mountains is far under the supposed place of Paradise; and on these self Hills the Air is so thin []
    • 1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite
      At that self moment enters Palamon
      The gate of Venus []
  3. (obsolete) Belonging to oneself; own.
  4. (molecular biology, immunology) Of or relating to any molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign (nonself) molecule, cell, or tissue (for example, infective, allogenic, or xenogenic).
    • 2000, Ristori, G, “Compositional bias and mimicry toward the nonself proteome in immunodominant T cell epitopes of self and nonself antigens”, in FASEB Journal: the official journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, volume 14, number 3, PMID 10698957, pages 431-438:
      Similarity profiles between helper T cell epitopes (of self or microbial antigens and allergens) and human or microbial SWISSPROT collections were produced. For each antigen, both collections yielded largely overlapping profiles, demonstrating that self-nonself discrimination does not rely on qualitative features that distinguish human from microbial peptides. However, epitopes whose probability of mimicry with self or nonself prevails are, respectively, tolerated or immunodominant and coexist within the same (auto-)antigen regardless of its self/nonself nature. Epitopes (on self and nonself antigens) can cross-stimulate T cells at increasing potency as their similarity with nonself augments.

Antonyms

Further reading

Anagrams


Danish

Alternative forms

Adverb

self

  1. (Internet slang) Abbreviation of selvfølgelig (of course).

Maltese

Noun

self

  1. loan

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English self, from Proto-Germanic *selbaz.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsɛlf/

Adjective

self

  1. (the) (very/self) same, (the) aforementioned
  2. Intensifies the pronoun or noun it follows or precedes; very
  3. (+genitive) own

Descendants

References

Pronoun

self

  1. themself, themselves; a reflexive pronoun
  2. that, this

Descendants

  • English: self (obsolete in most pronominal senses)
  • Scots: self, sel

References

Noun

self (plural selfs)

  1. (the) same thing, (the) aforementioned thing

References


Old English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *selbaz.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /self/

Pronoun

self

  1. self

Derived terms

Descendants


Old Saxon

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *selbaz.

Pronoun

self

  1. self

Descendants

  • Low German: sulv
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