ownself
(now, chiefly, regional, especially, southern US, Caribbean, Singlish) (One's) self; used with a preceding possessive adjective to form a pronominal phrase.
Definitions
(now, chiefly, regional, especially, southern US, Caribbean, Singlish) (One's) self; used with a preceding possessive adjective to form a pronominal phrase.
Comments
Used in
Have a better definition?
Add your own interpretation of "ownself".
🎤About Black culture & AAVE slang
Slang from Black American Vernacular English (AAVE), hip-hop, drag and ballroom culture, the Caribbean, and NYC street vocabulary. The single largest source of new mainstream English slang in living memory.
See all Black culture & AAVE slang on Slangora.
Tags
Other words near "ownself" (O)
Browse all slang words starting with O.
Related terms
People also read
Semantically related
- yourself69%
(reflexive pronoun) Your own self (singular).
- y'allself69%
AAVE second-person plural reflexive pronoun meaning 'yourselves' — a natural extension of 'y'all' into reflexive territory. It fills a grammatical gap that standard English handles awkwardly ('yourselves' feels stiff; 'y'allself' flows). You'll hear it in everyday Southern and Black American speech: 'make y'allself at home,' 'help y'allself to some food.' It's intuitive, grammatically logical within the AAVE system, and captures the warmth of Southern hospitality speech perfectly. Social media has given it wider visibility beyond regional use.
- theyselves69%
A nonstandard or dialectal reflexive pronoun used in place of 'themselves,' common in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) and various regional dialects across the US and UK. It follows a consistent internal logic — paralleling 'myself,' 'yourself,' 'himself,' and 'herself' by using the subject pronoun form rather than the possessive. In AAVE in particular, it is a fully functional grammatical feature rather than an error, and appears in both spoken and written vernacular expression.
- self-own69%
A situation in which someone unintentionally embarrasses or undermines themself.
- atself67%
(UK, _, dialectal, Ireland) Merely; even; only so much as.