selfish
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From self + -ish. Compare Danish selvisk (“selfish”), Swedish självisk (“selfish”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
selfish (comparative more selfish or (proscribed) selfisher, superlative most selfish or (proscribed) selfishest)
- The template Template:rfclarify does not use the parameter(s):
2=It isn't clear what exactly distinguishes this sense from the second sense.
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.(clarification of this definition is needed)The template Template:rfquote-sense does not use the parameter(s):2=The present quote doesn't illustrate the meaning very well.
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.(The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) Holding one's own self-interest as the standard for decision making.- 1997, John Peniel, chapter 10, in The Children Of The Law Of One & The Lost Teachings Of Atlantis, page 127:
- “We all have both a selfish separate self, and an Inner Being that is One with the Universal Spirit. In this sense, every human has a sort of ‘split personality’. We are all kind of what you call ‘schitzy’ with these two sides, these two people living within us. And they are in total opposition. The free will dictates which of these two sides will have its way in our life, at every given moment.”
- Having regard for oneself above others’ well-being.
- 1823, James Hogg, “Peril First. Love. Circle Third.”, in The Three Perils of Woman; or, Love, Leasing, and Jealousy. […], volume I, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, page 277:
- Take warning by my fate, and shun that flowery and bewitching path; for in its labyrinths the good, the gentle, the kind-hearted, and the benevolent, are too often lost; while the sordid and the selfish scarcely so much as run a hazard.
- 1921, Ben Travers, chapter V, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
- The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?
- (video games) Of video game characters: relying on their own actions and capabilities to be effective in the game, rather than on other characters.
Usage notes[edit]
- Said of people and their thoughts and actions, such as motives, desires, acts.
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
holding one's self-interest as the standard for decision making
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regard for oneself above others' well-being
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Translations to be checked
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