self-employed

English

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 employed

English self-employed

From self- + employed.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

self-employed (not comparable)

1. Working for oneself, rather than for an employer.
   • 2023, Japan Today, 85-year-old man arrested for stealing condoms from convenience store:

     Police said Ko Sasaki, of no fixed address and who claims to be self-employed, took two packs of condoms, worth about 2,000 yen, and tried to leave the store without paying for them.

Related terms

• self-employment

Translations

working for oneself

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: autònom (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自雇的 (zìgù de), 自己當老闆的 / 自己当老板的 (zìjǐ dāng lǎobǎn de)

• Czech: samostatně výdělečně činný
• Finnish: itsensä työllistävä
• French: indépendant (fr), autonome (fr)
• Georgian: თვითდასაქმებული (tvitdasakmebuli)
• German: selbstständig (de), selbständig (de), freiberuflich (de), freischaffend
• Greek: αυτοαπασχολούμενος (el) (aftoapascholoúmenos)

  Ancient Greek: αὐτουργός (autourgós)

• Hungarian: egyéni vállalkozó, magánvállalkozó (hu), önfoglalkoztató, (dated) maszek (hu)
• Icelandic: sjálfstætt starfandi
• Irish: féinfhostaithe
• Italian: autonomo (it)
• Polish: samozatrudniony
• Portuguese: autónomo (pt), autônomo (pt)
• Romanian: autonom (ro)
• Russian: самоза́нятый (ru) (samozánjatyj)
• Slovak: samostatne zárobkovo činný
• Spanish: autónomo (es), independiente (es), por cuenta propia, por libre (freelance)