selfsame – English noun declension

English noun forms of selfsame

Noun: selfsame
Singularselfsame

Sample Sentences

  • 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. [1634, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Mildreiados. To the Blessed Memory of that Faire Manuscript of Vertue and Unblemisht Honour, Mildred, La[dy] Luckyn; […]. To My Honourable and Deare Friend, Sr William Luckyn, Baronet.”, in Divine Poems: […], revised edition, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for I[ohn] Marriot, […], →OCLC, page 518:]
  • So ſtrictly is the Specific Nature preſerv'd in the Individuals of the ſame kind, vvho all equally partake of it, and are ſo very reſembling and uniform in it, that they ſeem but as ſo many Self-ſames, ſo many Reproductions of one thing, like the Image of the ſame Face repeated by a Multiplying Glaſs. Thus for Inſtance, in Men, there is the ſame common Human Nature in all of them vvithout Intenſion or Remiſſion, the ſame Intellectual Frame, the ſame thinking Principle, the ſame rational Faculties, the ſame Radical Deſires and Inclinations, the ſame Natural Affections, the ſame Springs of Paſſion, &c. [1701, John Norris, “The Reality of the Distinction Justifi’d, by Shewing that This is Not the Only State of Things, but that They Have an Ideal as Well as a Natural State”, in An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World. […], part I, London: […] [Samuel] Manship, […]; and W[illiam] Hawes, […], →OCLC, page 50:]

Nouns inflected like selfsame

selfsame, chaoskampf, self-same, free rein, secular arm, while, malarkey, Chaoskampf,

Etymology

1. PIE word
2. *swé
3. 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.
4. Cognates
5. * Danish selvsamme (“identical, selfsame”)
6. * Old High German selbsama (“identical, selfsame”) See: Old Norse Nouns 'samr'.