self-deadadj.
/ˌsɛlfˈdɛd/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfˈdɛd/ΚΠ
1640 J. Gower tr. Ovid Festivalls 19 No beast self-dead [L. exanimata] her chappel will endure: Because, unclean, it stains her altars pure.
2. Dead to oneself; having no sense of self; destitute of personality or individuality. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > morally elevated quality > unselfishness > [adjective] > having no thought for self
self-forgetting1621
self-dead1647
unselfreflecting1668
self-regardless1808
self-forgetful1822
unselfconscious1866
1647 H. More Philos. Poems 332 That pure fire Wherewith thou wontest to inspire All self dead souls.
1686 H. More Let. 16 Jan. in J. Norris Theory & Regulation Love (1688) 187 To be thus self-dead and self-annihilated.
1798 W. Sotheby tr. C. M. Wieland Oberon vi. xxxi. 196 Self-dead, for him alone to be, to breathe, to move.
2009 J. P. Moran Solution of Fist 72 To state it in the language of modern day psychologists, Nikolai Vsevolodovich is a self-dead individual who continually tests his ‘deadness’ by committing outrages.
Derivatives
self-ˈdeadness n.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > morally elevated quality > unselfishness > [noun] > lack of thought for self
self-forgetfulness1635
self-deadness1647
unconsciousness1738
unselfconsciousness1838
self-lossa1857
1647 H. More Philos. Poems Notes 147/2 The most profound and spirituall humility,..and a perfect self-deadnesse.
1839 Missionary Reg. Jan. 4 The self-deadness, the superiority to party-spirit, the singleness of eye to the glory of Christ.
2007 Yearbk. Eng. Stud. 37 135 This self-deadness was in sharp contradistinction to Woolf's interests in the aesthetics of subjective individuality.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1640