self
[self]
noun, plural selves, adjective, pronoun, plural selves, verb | 1. | a person or thing referred to with respect to complete individuality: one's own self. |
| 2. | a person's nature, character, etc.: his better self. |
| 3. | personal interest. |
| 4. | Philosophy.
|
| 5. | being the same throughout, as a color; uniform. |
| 6. | being of one piece with or the same material as the rest: drapes with a self lining. |
| 7. | Immunology. the natural constituents of the body, which are normally not subject to attack by components of the immune system (contrasted with nonself ). |
| 8. | Obsolete. same. |
| 9. | myself, himself, herself, etc.: to make a check payable to self. |
| 10. | to self-pollinate. |
bef. 900; ME; OE self, selfa; c. D zelf, G selb-, ON sjalfr, Goth silba

self-
| a combining form of self and variously used with the meanings “of the self” (self-analysis) and “by oneself or itself” (self-appointed); and with the meanings “to, with, toward, for, on, in oneself” (self-complacent), “inherent in oneself or itself” (self-explanatory), “independent” (self-government), and “automatic” (self-operating). |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Self
Self\, a. Having its own or a single nature or character, as in color, composition, etc., without addition or change; unmixed; as, a self bow, one made from a single piece of wood; self flower or plant, one which is wholly of one color; self-colored.Self
Self\, a. [AS. self, seolf, sylf; akin to OS. self, OFries. self, D. zelf, G. selb, selber, selbst, Dan. selv. Sw. sjelf, Icel. sj[=a]lfr, Goth. silba. Cf. Selavage.] Same; particular; very; identical. [Obs., except in the compound selfsame.] "On these self hills." --Sir. W. Raleigh. To shoot another arrow that self way Which you did shoot the first. --Shak. At that self moment enters Palamon. --Dryden.Self
Self\, n.; pl. Selves. 1. The individual as the object of his own reflective consciousness; the man viewed by his own cognition as the subject of all his mental phenomena, the agent in his own activities, the subject of his own feelings, and the possessor of capacities and character; a person as a distinct individual; a being regarded as having personality. "Those who liked their real selves." --Addison. A man's self may be the worst fellow to converse with in the world. --Pope. 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. --Sir W. Hamilton. 2. Hence, personal interest, or love of private interest; selfishness; as, self is his whole aim. 3. Personification; embodiment. [Poetic.] She was beauty's self. --Thomson. Note: Self is united to certain personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives to express emphasis or distinction. Thus, for emphasis; I myself will write; I will examine for myself; thou thyself shalt go; thou shalt see for thyself; you yourself shall write; you shall see for yourself; he himself shall write; he shall examine for himself; she herself shall write; she shall examine for herself; the child itself shall be carried; it shall be present itself. It is also used reflexively; as, I abhor myself; thou enrichest thyself; he loves himself; she admires herself; it pleases itself; we walue ourselves; ye hurry yourselves; they see themselves. Himself, herself, themselves, are used in the nominative case, as well as in the objective. "Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples." --John iv. 2. Note: self is used in the formation of innumerable compounds, usually of obvious signification, in most of which it denotes either the agent or the object of the action expressed by the word with which it is joined, or the person in behalf of whom it is performed, or the person or thing to, for, or towards whom or which a quality, attribute, or feeling expressed by the following word belongs, is directed, or is exerted, or from which it proceeds; or it denotes the subject of, or object affected by, such action, quality, attribute, feeling, or the like; as, self-abandoning, self-abnegation, self-abhorring, self-absorbed, self-accusing, self-adjusting, self-balanced, self-boasting, self-canceled, self-combating, self-commendation, self-condemned, self-conflict, self-conquest, self-constituted, self-consumed, self-contempt, self-controlled, self-deceiving, self-denying, self-destroyed, self-disclosure, self-display, self-dominion, self-doomed, self-elected, self-evolved, self-exalting, self-excusing, self-exile, self-fed, self-fulfillment, self-governed, self-harming, self-helpless, self-humiliation, self-idolized, self-inflicted, self-improvement, self-instruction, self-invited, self-judging, self-justification, self-loathing, self-loving, self-maintenance, self-mastered, self-nourishment, self-perfect, self-perpetuation, self-pleasing, self-praising, self-preserving, self-questioned, self-relying, self-restraining, self-revelation, self-ruined, self-satisfaction, self-support, self-sustained, self-sustaining, self-tormenting, self-troubling, self-trust, self-tuition, self-upbraiding, self-valuing, self-worshiping, and many others.Cite This Source
self
"Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth." [Alan Watts]Self-made man first recorded 1832, Amer.Eng.
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Main Entry: self
Pronunciation: 'self
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural selves /'selvz/
1 : the union of elements(as body, emotions, thoughts, and sensations) that constitute the individuality and identity of a person
2 : material that is part of an individual organism
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self (sělf)
n. pl. selves (sělz)
- The total, essential, or particular being of a person; the individual.
- One's consciousness of one's own being or identity; the ego.
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Self language
A small, dynamically typed object-oriented language, based purely on prototypes and delegation. Self was developed by the Self Group at Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc. and Stanford University. It is an experimental exploratory programming language.
Release 2.0 introduces full source-level debugging of optimised code, adaptive optimisation to shorten compile pauses, lightweight threads within Self, support for dynamically linking foreign functions, changing programs within Self and the ability to run the experimental Self graphical browser under OpenWindows. Designed for expressive power and malleability, Self combines a pure, prototype-based object model with uniform access to state and behaviour. Unlike other languages, Self allows objects to inherit state and to change their patterns of inheritance dynamically. Self's customising compiler can generate very efficient code compared to other dynamically-typed object-oriented languages.
Version: 3.0 runs on Sun-3 (no optimiser) and Sun-4.
(http://sunlabs.com/research/self/).
["Self: The Power of Simplicity", David Ungar
(1999-06-09)
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self
the "I" as experienced by an individual. In modern psychology the notion of the self has replaced earlier conceptions of the soul
Learn more about self with a free trial on Britannica.com.
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