self-pity

See also: self pity

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *swé?

Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der.

Proto-Germanic *selbaz

Old English self

Old English self-

Middle English self-

English self-

English pity

English self-pity

From self- + pity.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

self-pity (uncountable)

1. A feeling of pity for oneself.

   I was sitting in my room, wallowing in self pity, when my favorite TV program came on.

   • 2021 July 29, Mike Hale, “Review: ‘The Pursuit of Love’ Against All Odds”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Things that were implicit and largely unjudged in the book, filtered through layers of stiff-upper-lip irony — Fanny’s self-pity, Linda’s obliviousness — are now foregrounded and, for the most part, rendered banal, with “Beaches”-level platitudes and sentimentality.

Related terms

• self-pitying, self-pityingly

Translations

feeling of pity for oneself

• Bulgarian: самосъжаление n (samosǎžalenie), самосъжаление n (samosǎžalenie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自憐 / 自怜 (zh) (zìlián)

• Czech: sebelítost m, bolestínství m
• Danish: selvmedlidenhed c
• Dutch: zelfbeklag (nl) n, zelfmedelijden (nl) n
• Finnish: itsesääli
• French: apitoiement sur soi-même m, autoapitoiement (fr) m, auto-apitoiement (fr)
• German: Selbstmitleid (de) n
• Greek: αυτολύπηση (el) f (aftolýpisi)
• Hungarian: önsajnálat (hu)
• Icelandic: sjálfsvorkunn f, sjálfsmeðaumkun f
• Italian: autocommiserazione f
• Macedonian: самосожалување n (samosožaluvanje)
• Portuguese: autocomiseração (pt) m
• Romanian: autocompătimire f
• Russian: жа́лость (žálostʹ) к (k) (самому (samomu) / самой (samoj)) себе́ (sebé) (žálostʹ k (samomú / samój) sebé) f ("самому́" - of a man, "само́й" - of a woman)
• Spanish: autoconmiseración f, autocompasión (es) f, autolástima f, autoindulgencia f
• Swedish: självömkan (sv) c

See also

• cry in one's beer