self-centered

English

Alternative forms

• self-centred (UK)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *swé?

Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der.

Proto-Germanic *selbaz

Old English self

Old English self-

Middle English self-

English self-

English centered

English self-centered

From self- + centered.

Adjective

self-centered (comparative more self-centered, superlative most self-centered) (American spelling)

1. Egotistically obsessed with oneself.

   Synonyms: egocentric, self-absorbed, solipsistic; see also Thesaurus:selfish

   • 1922, Frank Harris, “X”, in My Life and Loves:

     As a rule men through economic conditions marry so late that they have already half exhausted their virile power before they marry. And when they marry young they are so ignorant and so self-centered that they imagine their wives must be satisfied when they are.

2. Concerned or relating to the self, and not necessarily the greater good of one's group, community, tribe, etc.; individualistic.
   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 165:

     [A]nd that one great and all-important occasion and provocative of these beliefs was actually the rise of self-consciousness — that is, the coming of the mind to a more or less distinct awareness of itself and of its own operation, and the consequent development and growth of Individualism, and of the Self-centred attitude in human thought and action.

Derived terms

• self-centeredness

Translations

egotistically obsessed with oneself — see egocentric

See also

• self-absorbed