Selfsame
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Chiefly preceded by the: precisely the same person or thing. archaic
"I preſent vvhat here is to you, vvherein you ſhall receive but the ſelfeſame by Number and by Meaſure; vvhich, before, you had by VVeight."
- 1 Chiefly preceded by the: precisely the same; the very same; the same not only in being similar but in being identical. not-comparable
"For both of you are Birds of ſelfe-ſame Feather."
- 1 being the exact same one; not any other: wordnet
Example
More examples"In the selfsame day Noe, and Sem, and Cham, and Japheth, his sons: his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark."
Etymology
PIE word *swé From Middle English self sam, self same, selve same (“the very same, selfsame”) [and other forms], from self (“that specific (person mentioned), herself, himself, itself, themselves”, pronoun) (from Old English self, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”)) + sam, same (“(adjective) equal, identical; unchanging; referred to earlier, abovenamed, aforementioned; (adverb) again, repeatedly”) (from Old Norse samr (“same; agreeing, of one mind”), ultimately probably from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one, together”)). The English word is analysable as self + same. Cognates * Danish selvsamme (“identical, selfsame”) * Old High German selbsama (“identical, selfsame”)
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.