selfish, a.
(ˈsɛlfɪʃ)
Also 7 self(e)-ish, selvish.
[f. self n. + -ish1 2.
In Hacket's life of Archbishop Williams, Scrinia Reserata (1693) ii. §136, the word is said to be of the Presbyterians' ‘own new mint’; it is used in reference to events of the year 1641. Synonyms current in the 17th cent. are self-ended and self-ful.]
1. a. Devoted to or concerned with one's own advantage or welfare to the exclusion of regard for others.
| 1640 W. Bridge True Souldiers C. 74 A carnal selfe-ish spirit is very loathsome in what is spirituall. 1645 T. Hill Olive Branch (1648) 27 When you are so selfish in your designs and undertakings, and so far prefer your self-ends before the Publique. 1656 Jeanes Mixt. Schol. Div. 14 It is a selvish fear, proceeding from an..adulterous love of ourselves. 1753 Johnson Advent. No. 62 ¶5 Want makes almost every man selfish. 1775 Sheridan Duenna i. iv, Anywhere to avoid the selfish violence of my mother-in-law. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, ‘Well, but what's to become of me?’ urged the selfish man. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola xxv, The subjection of selfish interests to the general good. 1870 Mozley Univ. Serm. iii. (1877) 65 He necessarily wishes his own good; the wish..is no more selfish in him than it is selfish in him to be himself. |
| Comb. 1666 Bp. S. Parker Free & Impart. Censure (1667) 139 We cannot imagine him so selfish-spirited as to effect it. 1863 Hawker in Byles Life (1905) 462 A downlooking lying selfish-hearted throng. |
b. Used (by adversaries) as a designation of those ethical theories which regard self-love as the real motive of all human action.
| [1663 W. Lucy Observ. Hobbes 178 To use the Phrase of the time, this Gent. [Hobbes] is very selfish.] 1847 London Univ. Cal. (1848) 157 The different systems to which the term ‘selfish’ has been applied. 1868 Bain Ment. & Mor. Sci. 638 The Epicurean, or Selfish, System. |
c. Genetics. Of a gene or genetic material: tending to be perpetuated or to spread although of no effect on the phenotype.
| 1976 R. Dawkins Selfish Gene i. 3 Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs. 1979 Human Genetics (Ciba Symp.) 41 It seems to me that repetitive DNA is the only true selfish gene. 1981 Nature 13 Aug. 648/1 Selfish DNA, which contains no genetic information but which is perpetuated in eukaryote genomes, has attracted a lot of attention recently. |
¶ 2. By etymological re-analysis used for ‘pertaining to or connected with oneself’.
| 1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 72/2 The sensation excited on the skin is less selfish, if we may use the term in this sense. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 3 May 3/2 To pursue this self-ish ideal. |