Meanings
nounself-pity (uncountable)
- uncountableA feeling of pity for oneself.
I was sitting in my room, wallowing in self pity, when my favorite TV program came on.
1 more example
Things that were implicit and largely unjudged in the book, filtered through layers of stiff-upper-lip irony — Fanny’s self-pity, Linda’s obliviousness — are now foregrounded and, for the most part, rendered banal, with “Beaches”-level platitudes and sentimentality.
2021 July 29, Mike Hale, “Review: ‘The Pursuit of Love’ Against All Odds”, in The New York Times
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*swé?
- Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
- Proto-Germanic*selbaz
- Old Englishself
- Old Englishself-
- Middle Englishself-
- Englishself-
- Englishpity
- Englishself-pity
Translations
Bulgarian самосъжаление
- самосъжаление (samosăžalenie)feeling of pity for oneself
Chinese Mandarin 自憐 /自怜
- 自憐 /自怜 (zìlián)feeling of pity for oneself
Czech sebelítost, bolestínství
- sebelítostfeeling of pity for oneself
- bolestínstvífeeling of pity for oneself
Danish selvmedlidenhed
- selvmedlidenhedfeeling of pity for oneself
Dutch zelfbeklag, zelfmedelijden
- zelfbeklagfeeling of pity for oneself
- zelfmedelijdenfeeling of pity for oneself
Finnish itsesääli
- itsesäälifeeling of pity for oneself
French apitoiement sur soi-même, autoapitoiement
- apitoiement sur soi-mêmefeeling of pity for oneself
- autoapitoiementfeeling of pity for oneself
- auto-apitoiementfeeling of pity for oneself
German Selbstmitleid
- Selbstmitleidfeeling of pity for oneself
Greek αυτολύπηση
- αυτολύπηση (aftolýpisi)feeling of pity for oneself
Hungarian önsajnálat
- önsajnálatfeeling of pity for oneself
Icelandic sjálfsvorkunn, sjálfsmeðaumkun
- sjálfsvorkunnfeeling of pity for oneself
- sjálfsmeðaumkunfeeling of pity for oneself
Italian autocommiserazione
- autocommiserazionefeeling of pity for oneself
Portuguese autocomiseração
- autocomiseraçãofeeling of pity for oneself
Romanian autocompătimire
- autocompătimirefeeling of pity for oneself
Russian жа́лость к себе́
- жа́лость к себе́ (sebé)feeling of pity for oneself
Spanish autoconmiseración, autocompasión
- autoconmiseraciónfeeling of pity for oneself
- autocompasiónfeeling of pity for oneself
- autolástimafeeling of pity for oneself
- autoindulgenciafeeling of pity for oneself
Swedish självömkan
- självömkanfeeling of pity for oneself
Cite this entry
APA
self-pity. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-pity
MLA
“self-pity.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-pity. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-pity,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-pity.
Source: self-pity on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.