oneself

English

Etymology

A contracted form of one's self. Equivalent to one +‎ -self.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wʌnˈsɛlf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlf

Pronoun

oneself (reflexive form of the indefinite personal pronoun one, formerly sometimes two words: one's self)

1. A person's self: general form of himself, herself, themself or yourself.

   Teaching oneself to swim can be dangerous.

Usage notes

This pronoun can be used for emphasis or to make a verb reflexive.

Synonyms

• one's self

Derived terms

• be oneself
• by oneself
• feel like oneself

 

Translations

a person's self: general form of himself, herself, themself or yourself

• Arabic: نَفْس‎ (ar) (nafs)
• Catalan: es (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 自己 (zi⁶ gei²)

  Mandarin: 自己 (zh) (zìjǐ), 自身 (zh) (zìshēn), 自個兒／自个儿 (zh) (zìgěr)

  Min Nan: 家己 (zh-min-nan) (ka-kī)

• Dutch: zichzelf (nl), zich (nl)
• Esperanto: mem (eo)
• Finnish: itsensä (fi)
• French: soi-même (fr)
• Galician: un mesmo
• German: selbst (de), sich (de)
• Hindi: स्वयं (hi) (svayã), ख़ुद (xud)
• Hungarian: maga (hu), önmaga (hu), saját maga
• Japanese: 自分 (ja) (じぶん, jibun), 自分自身 (ja) (じぶんじしん, jibun jishin), 自身 (ja) (じしん, jishin), 自己 (ja) (じこ, jiko)
• Korean: 자신(自身) (ko) (jasin), 자기(自己) (ko) (jagi)
• Mauritian Creole: limem
• Persian: خود‎ (fa) (xud, xod), نفس‎ (fa) (nafs)
• Polish: siebie (pl), sobie (pl)
• Portuguese: se (pt), si (pt) (prepositional)
• Quechua: kiki
• Russian: (nominative) сам (ru) (sam), (genitive, accusative) себя́ (ru) (sebjá), (dative, prepositional) себе́ (ru) (sebé), (etc.)
• Sanskrit: स्वयम् (sa) (svayam)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: se

• Spanish: sí mismo, uno mismo (es)
• Swedish: sig själv, sig (sv)
• Telugu: తాను (te) (tānu)
• Thai: ตัวเอง (th) (dtuua-eeng)
• Turkish: kendi başına (tr), kendi kendine (tr), öz başına (tr)
• Urdu: خود‎ (xud)
• Vietnamese: mình (vi)

See also

• one
• self

 

English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.

			personal pronoun			possessive pronoun	possessive determiner
			subjective	objective	reflexive
first person	singular		I me (colloquial)	me	myself me mysen	mine	my mine (before vowels, archaic) me
	plural		we	us	ourselves ourself oursen	ours	our
second person	singular	standard, formal	you	you	yourself yoursen	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		archaic, informal	thou	thee	thyself theeself thysen	thine	thy thine (before vowels)
	plural	standard	you ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		colloquial	you all y'all you guys	you all y'all you guys	y'allselves	y'all's you guys's your guys's (proscribed)	y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys's your guys's (proscribed)
		informal / dialectal	(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third person	singular	masculine	he	him	himself hisself (archaic) hissen	his hisn (obsolete outside dialects)	his
		feminine	she	her	herself hersen	hers hern (obsolete outside dialects)	her
		neuter	it hit	it hit	itself hitself	its his (archaic)	its his (archaic) hits
		genderless	they	them	themself, themselves	theirs	their
		genderless, nonspecific (formal)	one	one	oneself	–	one's
	plural		they	them hem, 'em	themselves theirsen	theirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects)	their