selfie

See also: selfié and Selfie

English

Astronaut taking a selfie during a spacewalk in 2012.

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

selfie (plural selfies)

2. (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, 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.

   • 2017 Lord Stag, "Say Cheese", Lily's Driftwood Bay

     I shall take this photograph myself. This must be what they call a selfie.

   take a selfie

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.

Hypernyms

• self-portrait

Derived terms

• belfie
• braggie
• brelfie
• carfie
• chelfie
• delfie
• drelfie
• dronie
• felfie
• footsie
• grelfie
• groupie
• healthie
• helfie
• killfie
• legsie
• lelfie
• melfie
• nakie
• pelfie
• relfie
• selficide
• selfie stick
• shelfie
• shoefie
• slofie
• stealthie
• twofie
• ussie
• vaxxie
• velfie
• wefie
• welfie
• youfie

 

Descendants

Descendants

• → Arabic: سِلْفِي‎ (silfī)
  • → Gulf Arabic: سلفي‎ (silfi, salfi)
• → Armenian: սելֆի (selfi)
• → Assamese: চেল্ফি (selphi)
• → Azerbaijani: selfi
• → Belarusian: сэ́лфі (sélfi)
• → Czech: selfíčko
• → Danish: selfie
• → Dutch: selfie
• → Finnish: selfie
• → French: selfie
• → Georgian: სელფი (selpi)
• → German: Selfie
• → Hebrew: סֶלְפִי‎ (sélfi)
• → Hungarian: szelfi}}, selfie
• → Irish: féinín (calque)
• → Italian: selfie
• → Japanese: セルフィー (serufi)
• → Hebrew: סֶלְפִי‎ (sélfi)
• → Korean: 셀피 (selpi)
• → Latvian: selfijs
• → Lithuanian: selfis
• → Norwegian Bokmål: selfie
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: selfie
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: sjølvi (calque)
• → Papiamentu: selfie
• → Persian: سلفی‎ (selfi)
• → Polish: selfie
• → Portuguese: selfie, sélfie
• → Romanian: selfie
• → Russian: се́лфи (sɛ́lfi)
• → Scottish Gaelic: fèineag (calque)
• → Serbo-Croatian: selfie
• → Slovak: selfie
• → Slovak: svojka (calque)
• → Spanish: selfie, selfi
• → Swedish: selfie
• → Thai: เซลฟี (seel-fîi)
• → Turkish: selfie
• → Ukrainian: се́лфі (sélfi)

Translations

photographic self-portrait

• Arabic: سِلْفِي‎ m (silfī), سِيلْفِي‎ m (silfi, sīlfī), صُورَة ذَاتِيَّة‎ f (ṣūra(t) ḏātiyya)

  Gulf Arabic: سلفي‎ (silfi, salfi)

• Armenian: սելֆի (selfi)
• Assamese: চেল্ফি (selphi)
• Azerbaijani: selfi, özçəkim
• Belarusian: сэ́лфі n (sélfi)
• Catalan: autofoto f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 自拍 (zi⁶ paak³)

  Mandarin: 自拍 (zh) (zìpāi)

• Czech: selfíčko (cs)
• Danish: selfie c, selvportræt n
• Dutch: selfie (nl) n, otofoto m
• Esperanto: memfoto
• Finnish: selfie (fi), omakuva (fi), meitsie
• French: selfie (fr) m or f; (Canadian French): égoportrait (fr) m, autophoto (fr) f
• Galician: autofoto f
• Georgian: სელფი (selpi)
• German: Selfie (de) n
• Greek: σέλφι (el) sg or f (sélfi), αυτοφωτογράφιση (el) (aftofotográfisi)
• Hebrew: סֶלְפִי‎ (he) m (sélfi)
• Hungarian: szelfi (hu), selfie (hu)
• Indonesian: swafoto, foto narsisis
• Irish: féinphic m, féinín m
• Italian: selfie (it) m
• Japanese: 自分撮り (じぶんどり, jibundori), 自撮り (じどり, jidori), セルフィー (serufī)

• Korean: 셀피 (selpi), 셀프카메라 (selpeukamera), 셀카 (selka)
• Latvian: fotopašportrets m, pašfoto, pašbilde f, selfijs m
• Lithuanian: asmenukė, selfis
• Macedonian: самослик (mk) m (samoslik)
• Malay: swagambar, swafoto (ms), سوافوتو‎ (ms) (suafutu)
• Maori: matatahi, kiriāhua
• Moroccan Amazigh: ⵜⴰⵡⵍⴰⴼⵎⴰⵏⵜ f (tawlafmant)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: selfie (no) m

  Nynorsk: selfie m, sjølvi

• Papiamentu: slfer, selfie
• Persian: سلفی‎ (fa) (selfi)
• Polish: selfie (pl) n
• Portuguese: selfie (pt) m or f, sélfie (pt) f
• Romanian: selfie n
• Russian: се́лфи (ru) n (sɛ́lfi), себя́шка (ru) f (sebjáška)
• Scottish Gaelic: fèineag f
• Serbo-Croatian: sebić m, samić m, samoslik m, selfie n
• Slovak: selfie n, svojka f
• Spanish: autofoto (es) f, selfie (es) f, selfi (es) f
• Swedish: selfie (sv), egobild, självis (sv)
• Thai: เซลฟี (seel-fîi)
• Turkish: selfie (tr), özçekim (tr), görçek (tr)
• Ukrainian: се́лфі n (sélfi)
• Vietnamese: tự sướng (vi), ảnh tự sướng, hình tự sướng, ảnh tự chụp, hình tự chụp, seo-phi
• Welsh: hunlun m

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

• Arabic:

  Gulf Arabic: خذا سلفي‎ (ḵiḏa silfi), صور سلفي‎ (ṣawwar silfi)

• Greek: βγάζω σέλφι (vgázo sélfi)
• Hebrew: עָשָׂה סֶלְפִי‎ ('asá sélfi)
• Hungarian: szelfizik
• Indonesian: berswafoto

• Malay: berswafoto
• Moroccan Amazigh: ⵙⵙⵡⵍⴼ ⵉⵎⴰⵏ n (sswlf iman)
• Spanish: selfiar
• Thai: เซลฟี (seel-fîi)

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• e-files

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Danish

Etymology

Borrowed 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

Borrowed from English selfie.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

selfie m (plural selfies, diminutive selfietje n)

1. selfie

   Synonym: otofoto

Derived terms

• stemfie
• zelfje

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Finnish

Etymology

from English selfie

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

Possessive forms of selfie (type valtio)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	selfieni	selfiemme
2nd person	selfiesi	selfienne
3rd person	selfiensä

See also

• teinipeili
• omakuva

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French

Etymology

From English selfie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛl.fi/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

selfie m or f (plural selfies)

1. selfie

   Synonyms: autophoto, égoportrait

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Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English selfie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛl.fi/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlfi
• Syllabification: sel‧fie

Noun

selfie n (indeclinable)

1. (informal, mobile telephony) selfie

   Synonym: samojebka

Further reading

• selfie in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• selfie in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English selfie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Brazil) /ˈsɛw.fi/, [ˈsɛʊ̯.fi]

• IPA^(key): (Portugal) /ˈsɛl.fi/, [ˈsɛɫ.fi]

Noun

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

1. (proscribed) selfie (photographic self-portrait)

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• selfi

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English selfie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈselfi/, [ˈsel.fi]

Noun

selfie m or f (plural selfies)

1. selfie

   Synonym: autofoto

   • 2022, Bad Bunny (lyrics and music), “Tití Me Preguntó”, in Un Verano Sin Ti:

     Vamo' a tirarno' un selfie, say "cheese", ey

     Let’s take a selfie, say “cheese”, hey

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Verb

selfie

1. inflection of selfiar:
   1. first-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. third-person singular imperative