philauty

English

Etymology

Based on Ancient Greek φιλαυτία (philautía, “self-love, self-regard”), fopm φιλέω (philéō, “I love”), and αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Noun

philauty (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Selfishness, self-esteem, vanity
   • 1702, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto V. The Pacification.”, in Charles Beaumont, editor, Psyche, or Love’s Mystery, […], 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University-Press, for Tho[mas] Bennet, […], →OCLC, stanza 101, page 61, column 1:

     At's left ſtood ſpruce and gaudy Philauty, / Whoſe thoughts dwelt on a cryſtal book ſhe held / Eternally to her admiring Eye; / In which her fooliſh ſelf ſhe read, and ſmil'd / On her fair Leſſon; though the brittle Glaſs / Admoniſh'd her how vain her Beauty was.

   • 1721, Nathan Bailey, Divers Proverbs

     Every Man thinks his own Geese Swans. This Proverb intimates that an inbred Philauty runs through the whole
     Race of Flesh and Blood and that Self-love is the Mother of Vanity, Pride, and Mistake. It turns a Man's Geese
     into Swans, his Dunghill Poultry into Pheasants and his Lambs into Venison.

   • 1721, Richard Chenevix Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament

     The φίλαυτος is exactly our 'selfish', and φίλαυτία 'selfishness'; but this contemplated rather as an undue sparing of self
     and providing things easy and pleasant for self, than as harshness and rigour toward others. Thus φίλαυτος is joined with
     φιλοψυχος by Plutarch, this last epithet indicating one loving his life overmuch. Before the English language had generated
     the word 'selfishness,' which it did not until the middle of the seventeenth century, there was an attempt made to supply
     an evident want in our ethical terminology by aid of philauty; thus see Beaumont's Psyche, passim, and other
     similar poems. Philauty however, never succeeded in obtaining any firm footing among us, and 'suicism', which was
     a second attempt, as little; an appeal to the Latin proving as unsuccessful as that to the Greek. Nor was the deficiency
     effectually supplied till the Puritan divines, drawing upon our native stock of words, brought in 'selfish' and 'selfishness'.

Related terms

• philautic
• philautia

References

• Websters New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language, New York: Publishers Guild, Inc., 1943