selfie

See also: selfié

English

Etymology

From self +‎ -ie. Attested since 2002, originally Australian English.

Astronaut Aki Hoshide taking a selfie during a spacewalk.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlfi/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

selfie (plural selfies)

1. (informal, mobile telephony) A photographic self-portrait, especially one taken manually (not using a timer, tripod etc.) with a small camera or mobile phone.
   • 2002 September 13, N. "Hopey" Hope, "re: Dissolvable stitches" [1], ABC Online Forum [selfie photo]:

     Um, drunk at a mates^[sic] 21st, I tripped ofer^[sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.

   • 2004 October 21, Brian McGuirk, "bmcguirk's photos." [2], Flickr:

     Pre. Nice rooftop selfie. […] No Hair. Another nice rooftop selfie.

   • 2005, Jim Krause, Photo Idea Index, HOW Books (2005), ISBN 9781581807660, page 148:

     That's not to imply that it's "wrong" for your arm or hand to show up in a selfie.

   • 2012 December 27, Andrew Prince, “The Mars Rover Takes A Selfie” [3], the picture show, National Public Radio
   • 2013 December 13, Roberto Schmidt (guest), Brooke Gladstone (interviewer and editor), “The Photographer Behind ‘Selfie-Gate’”, On the Media, National Public Radio:

     Barack Obama was talking to David Cameron and with the Danish Prime Minister, and that’s when she actually reached into her purse and brought out a cell phone and stretched her arms and did a selfie with them.

Usage notes

Usage is very varied, including photos of oneself that are not taken by oneself (not self-portraits), as in “Could you take a selfie of me?” (compare autobiography, which may be written by a ghostwriter), or not only of oneself, as in “This is a selfie of me and my sister.” Many terms for recently popular photo genres have been coined by analogy by suffixing -ie, as in shelfie, or by blending, as in nelfie. A self-portrait of multiple people is sometimes called an ussie, groupie, or selvesie.

Derived terms

terms derived from selfie

• belfie
• braggie
• groupie
• healthie

• selfie stick
• shelfie
• shoefie
• ussie

Translations

photographic self-portrait

• Armenian: սելֆի (selfi)
• Azeri: selfi, özçəkim
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 自拍 (zi⁶ paak³)

  Mandarin: 自拍 (zh) (zìpāi)

• Czech: selfíčko (cs)
• Dutch: selfie (nl) n, zelfje n, otofoto m
• Esperanto: memfoto
• Finnish: selfie (fi), omakuva (fi), meitsie
• French: selfie (fr) m, f; (Canadian French): égoportrait (fr) m, autophoto (fr) f
• Galician: autofoto f
• Georgian: სელფი (selpi)
• German: Selfie (de) n
• Hebrew: סֶלְפִי‏‎ (he) m (sélfi)
• Hungarian: szelfi (hu), selfie
• Indonesian: swafoto, foto narsisis
• Irish: féinphic m, féinín m
• Japanese: 自分撮り (じぶんどり, jibundori), 自撮り (じどり, jidori)
• Korean: 셀피 (selpi), 셀프카메라 (selpeukamera), 셀카 (selka)
• Latvian: fotopašportrets m, pašfoto, pašbilde f, selfijs m
• Lithuanian: asmenukė, selfis

• Macedonian: самослик (mk) m (sámoslik)
• Malay: swafoto
• Maori: matatahi, kiriāhua
• Mongolian: өөрөг (mn) (öörög)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: selfie (no) m

  Nynorsk: selfie m, sjølvi

• Papiamentu: slfer, selfie
• Persian: سلفی‏‎ (fa) (selfi)
• Polish: samojebka (pl) f, focia z rąsi f, słitfocia f, selfik m
• Portuguese: selfie (pt) m, f, sélfie (pt) f
• Romanian: selfie n
• Russian: се́лфи (ru) n (sɛ́lfi), себя́шка (ru) f (sebjáška)
• Scottish Gaelic: fèineag f
• Spanish: autofoto (es) f, selfie (es) f, selfi f
• Standard Moroccan Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵡⵍⴰⴼⵎⴰⵏⵜ f (Tawlafmant)
• Swedish: selfie (sv), egobild, självis
• Thai: เซลฟี (seel-fîi)
• Turkish: selfie (tr), özçekim, görçek
• Vietnamese: tự sướng (vi), ảnh tự sướng, hình tự sướng, ảnh tự chụp, hình tự chụp
• Welsh: hunlun m

Hypernyms

• self-portrait

Verb

selfie (third-person singular simple present selfies, present participle selfying, simple past and past participle selfied)

1. (intransitive, informal, mobile telephony) to take a selfie

Translations

to take a selfie

• Hebrew: עָשָׂה סֶלְפִי‏‎ ('asá sélfi)
• Hungarian: szelfizik
• Spanish: selfiar

• Standard Moroccan Tamazight: ⵙⵙⵡⵍⴼ ⵉⵎⴰⵏ n (Sswlf iman)
• Thai: เซลฟี (seel-fîi)

Further reading

• Selfie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Selfies on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

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Danish

Etymology

Borrowing from English selfie

Noun

selfie

1. selfie

Declension

Declension of selfie

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	selfie	selfien	selfier selfies	selfierne
genitive	selfies	selfiens	selfiers selfiess	selfiernes

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowing from English selfie.

Noun

selfie m (plural selfies, diminutive selfietje n)

1. selfie

   Synonyms: otofoto, zelfje

Derived terms

• stemfie
• zelfje

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Finnish

Etymology

from English

Noun

selfie

1. selfie

Declension

Inflection of selfie (Kotus type 3/valtio, no gradation)
nominative		selfie	selfiet
genitive		selfien	selfieiden selfieitten
partitive		selfietä	selfieitä
illative		selfieen	selfieihin
		singular	plural
nominative		selfie	selfiet
accusative	nom.	selfie	selfiet
	gen.	selfien
genitive		selfien	selfieiden selfieitten
partitive		selfietä	selfieitä
inessive		selfiessä	selfieissä
elative		selfiestä	selfieistä
illative		selfieen	selfieihin
adessive		selfiellä	selfieillä
ablative		selfieltä	selfieiltä
allative		selfielle	selfieille
essive		selfienä	selfieinä
translative		selfieksi	selfieiksi
instructive		—	selfiein
abessive		selfiettä	selfieittä
comitative		—	selfieineen

See also

• teinipeili
• omakuva

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French

Etymology

From English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛl.fi/

Noun

selfie m, f (plural selfies)

1. selfie

Synonyms

• autophoto
• égoportrait

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Portuguese

Etymology

From English selfie.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛw.fi/

Noun

selfie f or m (less common) (plural selfies)

1. selfie (photographic self-portrait)

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Spanish

Etymology

English

Alternative forms

• selfi
• celfi

Noun

selfie m (plural selfies)

1. selfie

Synonyms

• autofoto