self-maintenancen.
/ˌsɛlfˈmeɪnt(ᵻ)nəns/, /ˌsɛlfˈmeɪntn̩əns/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/, /ˌsɛlfˈmeɪntn̩əns/ The action of maintaining or sustaining oneself without external assistance or intervention; self-sustainment.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > absence of change, changelessness > maintaining state or condition > [noun] > of oneself or itself
self-maintenance1639
1639 J. Sedgwick Bearing & Burden of Spirit 128 There are too too many who out of a secret confidence of their selfe maintenance doe object their soules upon sinfull companies.
1699 Ld. Shaftesbury Inq. conc. Virtue ii. ii. 171 The subjects of labor increase, and self-defence, self-maintenance, search of Food, and Venery,..and other Affairs begin to give them Imployment in abundance.
1788 W. Mason in W. Whitehead Poems III. 44 This rapidity of publication..I am inclined to think, arose..rather from a laudable desire of self-maintenance, than any undue eagerness for poetical fame.
1867 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. II. vi. ix. 454 Increased cost of self-maintenance entailed decreased power of propagation.
1895 Econ. Jrnl. Sept. 368 The provision for old age..is part and parcel of the larger question of self-maintenance.
1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 13 June 18 Every man has to know something about cooking as a part of his self-maintenance in the field.
2013 D. J. Fairbairn Odd Couples iv. 56 The trade-off between self-maintenance and reproduction is manifest every time a brooding mother..feeds a prey item to her chick rather than eating it herself.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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