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Origin and history of self-willed

self-willed(adj.)

"obstinate, unmindful of the will or wishes of others," late 15c., from self-wille "obstinate or perverse insistence on one's own desires or opinions" (mid-14c.); see self + will (n.). Old English selfwill, selfwyll meant "free will."

Self-willedness "quality or condition of being self-willed" is from mid-15c., though it is not certain whether "obstinacy" or "self-reliance" is implied.

Middle English also had an adjective self-willy (15c.), and the adverb self-willes is attested from late 12c. as "willingly, voluntarily;" late 14c. as "willfully, stubbornly."

also from late 15c.

Entries linking to self-willed

self(pron., n., adj.)

Old English self, sylf (West Saxon), seolf (Anglian), "one's own person, -self; own, personal; same, identical," from Proto-Germanic *selbaz (source also of Old Norse sjalfr, Old Frisian self, Dutch zelf, Old High German selb, German selb, selbst, Gothic silba), Proto-Germanic *selbaz "self," from PIE *sel-bho-, suffixed form of root *s(w)e-, pronoun of the third person and reflexive (referring back to the subject of a sentence), also used in forms denoting the speaker's social group, "(we our-)selves" (see idiom).

Its use as the second element in compounded reflexive pronouns (herself, etc.) was in Old English, from the original independent (and inflected) use of self following personal pronouns, as in ic selfa "myself," min selfes "of myself." With a merging of accusative, dative, and genitive cases.

As a noun from c. 1200 as "the person or thing previously specified;" early 14c. as "a person in relation to that same person." G.M. Hopkins used selve as a verb, "become or cause to become a unique self" (1880) but its use seems to have been restricted to poets.

will(n.)

"the faculty of conscious deliberative action, volitional faculty of the soul," Middle English will, wil, wille, from Old English will, willa "mind, determination, purpose; desire, wish, request; joy, delight," from Proto-Germanic *wiljon-, a reconstructed noun related to *willan "to wish" (see will (v.1)).

The meaning "written document expressing a person's wishes about disposition of property after death" is recorded by late 14c., from the verb, on the notion of "signify or relate what is required to be done" (c. 1300).

At will "according to one's desires" is from c. 1300; to be made to do something against (one's) will also is from c. 1300.

Germanic cognates include Old Saxon willio, Old Norse vili, Old Frisian willa, Dutch wil, Old High German willio, German Wille, Gothic wilja "will."

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