Selfly

//ˈsɛlfli// adj, adv

adj, adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to self or one's own self, personal.

    "This denotes and declares the divided tongues, where every property had brought itself forth out of the universal sensual tongue into a selfishness and a peculiar selfly understanding, so that they did not any longer understand one another […]"

Adverb
  1. 1
    In, of, or by one's self; of one's own accord, voluntary, automatic. not-comparable

    "Thy gloomy Front, that selfly hath no light"

Example

More examples

"This denotes and declares the divided tongues, where every property had brought itself forth out of the universal sensual tongue into a selfishness and a peculiar selfly understanding, so that they did not any longer understand one another […]"

Etymology

From Middle English selfly, from Old English selflīċ (“automatic, spontaneous, voluntary”); equivalent to self + -ly.

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