self-nothingnessn.
/ˌsɛlfˈnʌθɪŋnᵻs/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfˈnəθɪŋnᵻs/ Now somewhat rare.
A state or condition in which the self does not exist, or is effaced; self-annihilation; self-abasement; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > humility > self-abasement > [noun]
humbling1549
prostration1619
self-abasement1641
self-nothingness1647
humicubation1656
1647 H. More Philos. Poems Notes 373 This valley of Ain is nothing else but self deadnesse, or rather self-nothingnesse.
1677 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. IV i. i. 31 It doth lift the heart above al things create, and yet at the same time depresse it at the lowest centre of self-nothingnesse.
1708 J. White Perswasive to Moderation 31 Who can be this happy and blessed Soul, and not be amazed, and quite vanish before so much Greatness and Goodness into its Self-Nothingness.
1834 S. Turner Sacred Hist. World II. vii. 126 Our co-existing imperfections and errors; our unworthiness, our self-nothingness, and that state of mind and conduct which they characterize as human sin.
1892 Non-Sectarian June 213 Never until we love them [sc. the poor] can we toil for them in this spirit of cheerful patience and lowliness and self-nothingness.
a1918 H. S. Holland Philos. of Faith & Fourth Gospel (1920) 224 The degree of the self-surrender, self-nothingness, is the measure of the active efficiency: the more empty of self, the more filled with God.
1998 N. Depraz in N. Depraz & D. Zahavi Alterity & Facticity ii. 45 ‘Pour-soi’..is determined as the very opposite of an absolute fullness, that is, as a self-nothingness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1647