self

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The total, essential, or particular being of a person; the individual: "An actor's instrument is the self” ( Joan Juliet Buck).
2. n. The essential qualities distinguishing one person from another; individuality: "He would walk a little first along the southern walls, shed his European self, fully enter this world” ( Howard Kaplan).
3. n. One's consciousness of one's own being or identity; the ego: "For some of us, the self's natural doubts are given in mesmerizing amplification by way of critics' negative assessments of our writing” ( Joyce Carol Oates).
4. n. One's own interests, welfare, or advantage: thinking of self alone.
5. n. Immunology That which the immune system identifies as belonging to the body: tissues no longer recognized as self.
6. pro. Myself, yourself, himself, or herself: a living wage for self and family.
7. adj. Of the same character throughout.
8. adj. Of the same material as the article with which it is used: a dress with a self belt.
9. adj. Obsolete Same or identical.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Same; identical; very same; very.
2. Own; personal.
3. Single; simple; plain; unmixed with any other: particularly noting colors: as, self-colored.
4. A pronominal element affixed to certain personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives to express emphasis or distinction, or to denote a reflexive use. Thus, for emphasis, I myself will write; I will examine for myself; thou thyself shalt go; thou shalt see for thyself; the writing itself shall be exhibited. “I myself will decide” not only expresses my determination to decide, but my determination that no other shall decide. Reflexively, I abhor myself; he admires himself; it pleases itself. Himself, herself, themselves are used in the nominative case as well as in the objective. When the elements are separated by an adjective, self becomes a mere noun: as, my own self, our two selves, his very self; so one's self for oneself. See III.
5. n. A person in his relations to that very same person. Self differs from ego as being always relative to a particular individual, and as referring to that person in all his relations to himself and not merely as given in consciousness.
6. n. A thing or class of things, or an attribute or other abstraction, considered as precisely distinguished from all others: as, the separation of church and state is urged in the interest of religion's self.
7. n. Personal interest and benefit; one's own private advantage.
8. n. In horticulture, a flower with its natural plain color; a self-colored flower, as distinguished from one which has become “rectified” or variegated. Compare self-colored. [Self is the first element in numerous compounds, nearly all modern. It may be used with any noun having an associated verb, or with any participial adjective (in -ing- or -ed or -en), or other adjective implying action. It indicates either the agent or the object of the action expressed by the word with which it is joined, or the person on behalf of whom it is performed, or the person or thing to, for, or toward 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 the subject of, or object affected by, such action, quality, attribute, feeling, and the like; and the meaning is frequently negative, implying that the relation exists toward self only, not toward others: as, self-acting, etc. Most of these compounds are of obvious meaning; only the more important of them are given below (without etymology, except when of early formation). In words compounded with self, the element self has a certain degree of independent accent, generally less than that of the following element, but liable to become by emphasis greater than the latter.]

Wiktionary

1. pro. obsolete Himself, herself, itself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).
2. pro. Myself.
3. n. An individual person as the object of his own reflective consciousness.
4. adj. obsolete same

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Obs., except in the compound selfsame. Same; particular; very; identical.
2. adj. Having its own or a single nature or character, as in color, composition, etc., without addition or change; unmixed.
3. n. 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.
4. n. Hence, personal interest, or love of private interest; selfishness.
5. n. Poetic. Personification; embodiment.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a person considered as a unique individual
2. n. your consciousness of your own identity
3. adj. (used as a combining form) relating to--of or by or to or from or for--the self