self-own
/ˌsɛlfˈoʊn/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.13 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A situation in which someone unintentionally embarrasses or undermines themself.
Example Sentences
- "All of this has set the stage for ownage’s latest twist: the rise of the self-own. If an own exposes another person’s ignorance, a self-own reveals your own obliviousness. During the campaign, Bobby Jindal tried to insult President Trump on Twitter but ended up suggesting that only fools would donate to Jindal’s campaign: “We have met. You wrote a check. A fool & his money are soon parted. A fool & his dad’s money are parted sooner.” Jindal owned himself."
- ""Unfortunately, ... we've had some incidents on travel dating back to when I first started serving in the March-April timeframe," [Scott] Pruitt told the Union Leader, which is hilarious because up to that point Pruitt never willingly spoke with a union leader. "We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment." Besides that final quote being the grand champion of self-owns, publication of the interview led to more information about Pruitt's first-class habit."
- "Although—I will admit, I'm really enjoying what a self-own some of your logic is. You're like, "oh no we can't let trans girls compete against cis girls because we believe that trans girls are actually boys and everybody knows boys are athletically and intellectually superior to girls in every way and so we must protect our dumb weak daughters from being embarrassed.""
Etymology
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌsɛlfˈoʊn/
- British English: /ˌsɛlfˈəʊn/