self-interest

English

Etymology

self- +‎ interest

Noun

self-interest

1. One's personal interest or advantage, especially when pursued without regard for others.

   I cannot abandon my husband for the sake of self-interest and personal gain.

   • 2022 July 27, Charles Hugh Smith, There Won't Be Any Winners Because The Status Quo Is Corrupt Everywhere‎^[1]:

     Corruption becomes fatal when those in power are no longer able to distinguish the difference between self-interest and the national interest.

   • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 52:

     Government standards of decency and honesty were quite low, and decision-makers were tainted with self-interest and corruption at the very highest level.

Derived terms

• enlightened self-interest

 

Related terms

• self-interested
• self-serving

Translations

personal interest

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 利己主義／利己主义 (zh) (lìjǐzhǔyì), 私心 (zh) (sīxīn), 自利 (zh) (zìlì)

• Danish: egennytte c, egeninteresse c, selvinteresse c
• Finnish: oma etu
• German: Eigennutz (de) m
• Greek: ιδιοτέλεια (el) f (idiotéleia)
• Hebrew: אינטרס עצמי m (interes 'atsmi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: egeninteresse m, eigeninteresse m

  Nynorsk: eigeninteresse f

• Polish: własna korzyść f, własny interes
• Portuguese: interesseirismo m
• Punjabi: ਸ੍ਵਾਰਥ (pa) m (svārath)
• Russian: своекоры́стие (ru) n (svojekorýstije)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: egennytta (sv) c, egenintresse (sv) n
• Turkish: öz çıkar (tr)