Self-own

//ˌsɛlfˈoʊn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A situation in which someone unintentionally embarrasses or undermines themself. Internet

    "All of this has set the stage for ownage’s latest twist: the rise of the self-own. If an own exposes another person’s ignorance, a self-own reveals your own obliviousness. During the campaign, Bobby Jindal tried to insult President Trump on Twitter but ended up suggesting that only fools would donate to Jindal’s campaign: “We have met. You wrote a check. A fool & his money are soon parted. A fool & his dad’s money are parted sooner.” Jindal owned himself."

Synonyms

All synonyms
own goal

Example

More examples

"All of this has set the stage for ownage’s latest twist: the rise of the self-own. If an own exposes another person’s ignorance, a self-own reveals your own obliviousness. During the campaign, Bobby Jindal tried to insult President Trump on Twitter but ended up suggesting that only fools would donate to Jindal’s campaign: “We have met. You wrote a check. A fool & his money are soon parted. A fool & his dad’s money are parted sooner.” Jindal owned himself."

Etymology

From self- + own, in verb sense own (“to defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm”), from Internet and gaming subculture.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.