self-concerningadj.
/ˌsɛlfkənˈsəːnɪŋ/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfkənˈsərnɪŋ/ Relating to one's own interest or advantage; self-interested. Also occasionally more neutrally: that concerns or relates to oneself.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > self-interest > [adjective]
self-seeking?1575
self-respecting1597
proprietariousa1633
self-ended1643
self-interessed1645
self-interested1648
self-concerned1653
self-concerning1656
self-biased1662
self-ending1698
interested1705
self-interesting1710
1656 A. Cowley Pindarique Odes 13 in Poems For self-concerning ends.
1715 S. Wright Treat. being born Again iv. 117 They pronounce the most solemn, and substantial, and self-concerning Truths.
1882 Graphic 22 Apr. 402/2 The young clergyman who conceitedly considers the indulgence of his own self-concerning doubts more important than the performance of the practical duties to which he is vowed.
1920 F. Prewett Let. 29 Feb. in Sel. Poems (1987) 10 Wyndham Lewis and the Sitwells are quite harmless to sober, self-concerning people, but to the young and unconfident they are simply pernicious.
1970 Jrnl. Politics 32 95 Man can develop a public self that reveals an aspect of his human genius that an individualist and self concerning society conceals.
2000 Amer. Philos. Q. 37 194/1 [Virtue ethics] makes the agent himself the focus of self-concerning sanctimonious attention, hence obscuring and ignoring the essential other-concern of morality.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1656