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selfsame

adj
/ˈsɛlfseɪm/UK/ˈsɛlfˌseɪm/US

Etymology

PIE word *swé From Middle English self sam, self same, selve same (“the very same, selfsame”) [and other forms], from self (“that specific (person mentioned), herself, himself, itself, themselves”, pronoun) (from Old English self, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”)) + sam, same (“(adjective) equal, identical; unchanging; referred to earlier, abovenamed, aforementioned; (adverb) again, repeatedly”) (from Old Norse samr (“same; agreeing, of one mind”), ultimately probably from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one, together”)). The English word is analysable as self + same. Cognates * Danish selvsamme (“identical, selfsame”) * Old High German selbsama (“identical, selfsame”)

  1. derived from *sem-✻ — “one, together”
  2. derived from samr — “same; agreeing, of one mind”
  3. derived from *swé✻ — “self”
  4. derived from self
  5. inherited from self sam

Definitions

  1. Chiefly preceded by the

    Chiefly preceded by the: precisely the same; the very same; the same not only in being similar but in being identical.

    • For both of you are Birds of ſelfe-ſame Feather.
    • He and his Horse, were of a piece. / One Spirit did inform them both, / The self-same Vigor, Fury, Wroth: […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at selfsame. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01selfsame02precisely03emphasis04printing05copies06copy07identical

A definitional loop anchored at selfsame. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at selfsame

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA