Etymology

selflessness

S1E1L1F4L1E1S1S1N1E1S1S1

Today it means: The quality or state of being selfless. Full definition →

English selfless ← Proto-Germanic *lausaz ← Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*swé?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
  3. Proto-Germanic*selbaz
  4. Old Englishself
  5. Middle Englishself
  6. Englishself
  7. Proto-Indo-European*lewh₁-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*lewHs-
  9. Proto-Germanic*leusaną
  10. Proto-Germanic*lausaz
  11. Englishselfless
  12. English todayselflessness

From selfless + -ness.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.