self-help

English

Etymology

From self- +‎ help.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

self-help (uncountable)

1. The practice of bettering oneself without relying on the assistance of others.

   a self-help book

   • 1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings‎^[1], New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 91:

     Look at the self-help titles in the bookstore, and you'll get a few clues about our culture. They're all about aggression and acquisition. It wouldn't be at all surprising to see a book called How to Force your Will on Other People by Giving Them the Shaft and Fucking Them out of Their Money.

   • 2019 May 2, Nina Avramova, “When you should use self-help programs and when to skip them”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 13 June 2025:

     Amanda Straw estimates that she has read nearly 200 self-help books.

2. (law) An act of redressing or preventing a wrong by one's own actions rather than through legal proceedings.

   self-help repossession

Synonyms

• (act of bettering oneself): self-improvement

Derived terms

• self-helpy

Translations

bettering oneself without relying on the assistance of others

• Catalan: autoajuda f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 勵志 / 励志 (zh) (lìzhì), 成功學 / 成功学 (chénggōngxué)

• Czech: svépomoc (cs) f
• Danish: selvhjælp c
• Dutch: zelfhulp (nl), zelfhelp (nl)
• Finnish: itseapu
• Galician: autoaxuda f
• German: Selbsthilfe (de) f
• Greek: αυτοβοήθεια (el) (aftovoḯtheia)
• Gujarati: સ્વસહાય (svashāya)
• Hungarian: önsegítés, önsegély (hu), önsegélyezés
• Irish: féinchabhair f, féinchúnamh m
• Italian: autoaiuto m
• Macedonian: самопомош f (samopomoš)
• Polish: samopomoc f
• Portuguese: auto-ajuda
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian: samopomoć
• Spanish: autoayuda (es) f

redressing or preventing a wrong by one's own actions

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自助 (zh) (zìzhù), 自力救濟 / 自力救济 (zìlì jiùjì)

• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: oma apu
• Hungarian: (taking the law into one's own hands) ^{(please verify)} önbíráskodás (hu), (self-defense) ^{(please verify)} önvédelem (hu), ^{(please verify)} önsegély (hu), ^{(please verify)} önsegélyezés
• Japanese: 自力救済 (jiriki kyūsai)
• Korean: 자력구제(自力救濟) (jaryeokguje)