nonself

See also: non-self

English edit

From non- +‎ self.

nonself (countable and uncountable, plural nonselfs or nonselves)

(philosophy, psychology) Any entity other than oneself.
- 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
  In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.
(immunology, uncountable) All agents and substances that are not the body's own.
- 1961, George F. Vande Woude, George Klein, Advances in Cancer Research‎^[1]:
  In his classic monograph describing the clonal selection theory of the immune response, Burnet (1959) suggested that the immune system distinguishes between self (no antibody response) and nonself (antibody response).

nonself