selvev.
/sɛlv/ rare.
intransitive (only G. M. Hopkins) and transitive. (To cause) to become and act as a unique self. Also in combinations, as selved-up.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > individual character or quality > individual [verb (intransitive)] > become a unique self
selve1880
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > individual character or quality > individual [verb (transitive)] > cause to become a unique self
selve1880
1880 G. M. Hopkins Serm. & Devotional Writings (1959) 123 Nothing else in nature comes near this unspeakable stress of pitch, distinctiveness, and selving, this selfbeing of my own.
1880 G. M. Hopkins Serm. & Devotional Writings (1959) 125 Nothing can..exercise function and determination before it has a nature to ‘function’ and determine, to selve and instress, with.
1880 G. M. Hopkins Serm. & Devotional Writings (1959) 125 I may treat the question from the side of my being, which is said to be compounded, selved-up, or identified with this universal mind.
Derivatives
selved adj.
ΚΠ
1880 G. M. Hopkins Serm. & Devotional Writings (1959) 122 Human nature, being more highly pitched, selved, and distinctive than anything in the world.
ˈselving n.
ΚΠ
1953 K. Raine Coll. Poems (1956) 166 Ceasing to trouble the flowing of things with the fleeting Dream and hope and despair of this transient perilous selving.
1976 H. A. Williams Tensions v. 87 Around that dim and dull awareness of our identity with God we begin, gradually and instinctively, to centre and selve the rest of what we are. That centring and selving takes the whole of our life.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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