selfish

selfish
selfish 1630s, from SELF (Cf. self) + -ISH (Cf. -ish). Said in Hacket's life of Archbishop Williams (1693) to have been coined by Presbyterians. In the 17c., synonyms included self-seeking (1620s), self-ended and self-ful.
Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs. [Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene," 1976]
Related: Selfishly; selfishness.

Etymology dictionary. 2014.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Selfish — Self ish, a. 1. Caring supremely or unduly for one s self; regarding one s own comfort, advantage, etc., in disregard, or at the expense, of those of others. [1913 Webster] They judge of things according to their own private appetites and selfish …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • selfish — index illiberal, insatiable, mercenary, parsimonious, penurious, thoughtless Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • selfish — [adj] thinking only of oneself egocentric, egoistic, egoistical, egomaniacal, egotistic, egotistical, greedy*, hoggish*, mean, mercenary, miserly, narcissistic, narrow, narrowminded, out for number one*, parsimonious, prejudiced, self centered,… …   New thesaurus

  • selfish — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ concerned chiefly with one s own personal profit or pleasure at the expense of consideration for others. DERIVATIVES selfishly adverb selfishness noun …   English terms dictionary

  • selfish — [sel′fish] adj. 1. too much concerned with one s own welfare or interests and having little or no concern for others; self centered 2. showing or prompted by self interest selfishly adv. selfishness n …   English World dictionary

  • selfish — adj. VERBS ▪ be, feel, seem, sound ▪ I know I m being selfish, but I can t help it. ▪ become ADVERB ▪ …   Collocations dictionary

  • selfish — adj. selfish to + inf. (it was selfish of them to do that) * * * [ selfɪʃ] selfish to + inf. (it was selfish of them to do that) …   Combinatory dictionary

  • selfish — adjective Date: 1640 1. concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself ; seeking or concentrating on one s own advantage, pleasure, or well being without regard for others 2. arising from concern with one s own welfare or advantage in… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • selfish — [[t]se̱lfɪʃ[/t]] ADJ GRADED If you say that someone is selfish, you mean that he or she cares only about himself or herself, and not about other people. I think I ve been very selfish. I ve been mainly concerned with myself. ...the selfish… …   English dictionary

  • selfish — self·ish sel fish adj being an actively replicating repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that serves no known function <selfish DNA> also being genetic material solely concerned with its own replication <selfish genes> …   Medical dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”