selfish
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: biology
natural-sciences
video-games
Etymology: From self + -ish. Compare Danish selvisk (“selfish”), Swedish självisk (“selfish”).
Base: self
Affixes: -ish
Inflected forms:
form: more selfish
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: selfisher
pos: adj
tags: comparative
proscribed
form: most selfish
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: selfishest
pos: adj
tags: proscribed
superlative
form: selvish
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Holding one's own self-interest as the standard for decision making.
pos: adj
examples: “We all have both a selfish separate self, and an Inner Being that is One with the Universal Spirit. In this sense, every human has a sort of ‘split personality’. We are all kind of what you call ‘schitzy’ with these two sides, these two people living within us. And they are in total opposition. The free will dictates which of these two sides will have its way in our life, at every given moment.”
gloss: Having excessive or exclusive regard and concern for one's own well-being, profit or pleasure, with little or no consideration for others.
pos: adj
examples: Take warning by my fate, and shun that flowery and bewitching path; for in its labyrinths the good, the gentle, the kind-hearted, and the benevolent, are too often lost; while the sordid and the selfish scarcely so much as run a hazard.
The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?
"Our CEQA process is clearly broken when a few wealthy Berkeley homeowners can block desperately needed student housing for years and even decades," Newsom's office said in a statement. "California cannot afford to be held hostage by NIMBYs who weaponize CEQA to block student and affordable housing. This selfish mindset is driving up housing prices, and making our state less affordable."
gloss: Of video game characters: relying on their own actions and capabilities to be effective in the game, rather than on other characters.
pos: adj
examples: With that said, there is a perk to Xiao being a selfish DPS. He plays like Razor where he needs to be out in the field more than 90 percent of the time. Compared to Diluc, Xiao is more independent when it comes to dealing damage.
gloss: Related to or equivalent to a selfish gene; best understood as existing to preserve and replicate itself in competition with other entities at the same level of existence, rather than at the level of the individual or population containing it.
pos: adj
examples: Discoveries of selfish genetic elements often follow from the emergence of a selfish phenotype either in a cross between members of closely related species, or in crosses involving individuals from different isolated populations within a species.
Through this hypothesized mechanism, a selfish virus would reduce the probability that other co-infecting genotypes contribute the expected share of their genes to the progeny.
The "selfish meme" concept does not, of course, ascribe any consciousness or motivation to the meme; it simply means we can understand better by looking at evolution from the meme's point of view.
Synonyms: egocentric
egoistical
every man for himself
idiocentric
individualistic
interested
porkish
reptilian
selfish
selflike
selfsome
self-absorbed
self-centered
self-interested
self-minded
self-seeking
self-serving
solipsistic
Antonyms: self-abnegatory
Related words: self-serving
selfishness
Derived words: hyperselfish
overselfish
selfish DNA
selfish gene
selfishly
selfishness
superselfish
ultraselfish
unselfishly
Translations: