self-preservation

English

Etymology

From self- +‎ preservation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsɛlfˌpɹɛzɜˈɹ.veɪ.ʃən/

Noun

self-preservation (uncountable)

1. The instinctive behaviour that protects oneself from harm.
   • 1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by The Wolf (Harvey Keitel):

     I'm here to tell you want to do. And if self-preservation is an instinct you possess, you better fuckin' do it and do it quick.

   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     Yet had the whole train and all its bombs gone, had the engine crew merely jumped from the train and run as simple self-preservation would have suggested, or unhitched just the engine to make their escape faster, the whole town would have gone and most of the people with it, leaving just a smoking wasteland. Hundreds would have died.

Translations

self-preservation

• Bulgarian: самосъхранение (bg) n (samosǎhranenie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自我保護／自我保护 (zìwǒ bǎohù), 自保 (zh) (zìbǎo)

• Czech: sebezáchova f
• Danish: selvopholdelse c, selvopholdelsesdrift c (literally “self-preservation instinct”)
• Dutch: zelfbehoud (nl) n
• Finnish: itsesuojelu
• French: autoconservation (fr) f
• German: Selbsterhaltung f, Selbsterhaltungstrieb (de) m (literally “self-preservation instinct”)
• Hungarian: önfenntartás (hu)
• Irish: féinchaomhnú m
• Italian: autoconservazione f
• Japanese: 自己保存 (しこほぞん, jiko-hozon)
• Lithuanian: savisauga f
• Polish: instynkt samozachowawczy m
• Russian: самосохране́ние (ru) n (samosoxranénije)
• Swedish: självbevarelse c, självbevarelsedrift (sv) c (literally “self-preservation instinct”)
• Ukrainian: самозбере́ження n (samozberéžennja)