self-harm

See also: selfharm and self harm

English

Alternative forms

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 harm
English self-harm

    From self- + harm.

    Pronunciation

    • Audio (US):(file)

    Noun

    self-harm (uncountable, abbreviation SH)

    1. (mental health) The deliberate nonsuicidal injuring of one's own body.
      Synonyms: self-injury, self-mutilation; see also Thesaurus:self-harm
      • 2025 November 26, Robert Booth, “ChatGPT firm blames boy’s suicide on ‘misuse’ of its technology”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 October 2026:
        It [OpenAI] said that its terms of use prohibited asking ChatGPT for advice about self-harm and highlighted a limitation of liability provision that states “you will not rely on output as a sole source of truth or factual information”.
      • 2026 October 8, Steve Rose, “Why Arturo Béjar left Meta – and blew the whistle: ‘I don’t recall Mark ever being empathetic’”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:
        By the time he [Arturo Béjar] found out about his daughter’s Instagram experience, other young victims of social media were becoming known. In 2017, 14-year-old Molly Russell died from an act of self-harm in her London bedroom.
        (Can we archive this URL?)

    Descendants

    • → Russian: селфха́рм (selfxárm)
    • → Ukrainian: селфха́рм (selfxárm)

    Translations

    Verb

    self-harm (third-person singular simple present self-harms, present participle self-harming, simple past and past participle self-harmed)

    1. (intransitive) To harm oneself deliberately.

    Translations

    Further reading

    Anagrams

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