self-hypnosis

The term is a modern English compound, formed by directly combining two established words. 'Self' is a fundamental Germanic concept, traceable to Proto-Germanic selbaz, meaning "self," and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root s(w)e-, denoting the third-person reflexive pronoun. 'Hypnosis' originates from the Greek mythic personification of sleep, Hypnos, whose name derives from the PIE root swep- meaning "to sleep." The compound 'self-hypnosis' logically constructs its meaning from its parts: a 'sleep-like state' (hypnosis) induced by and upon 'oneself' (self). It represents a democratization of an originally external practice, shifting the agency from a hypnotist to the individual.

Structure: self (own) + hypnosis (sleep-like state) self: From Old English 'self', 'seolf', 'sylf', meaning "one's own person." It functions as a prefix indicating something directed at, performed by, or of the self. hypnosis: From Greek 'hypnos' (ὕπνος) meaning "sleep," via New Latin. The suffix '-osis' indicates a state or condition. In this compound, it functions as the core noun denoting the specific trance state.