Selfheals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Characterizing the ability to recover naturally from injuries or ailments without external intervention
2. Describing a process or mechanism through which living organisms can mend themselves over time
3. Referring to a healing phenomenon where damage is repaired autonomously by the body's regenerative systems

Etymology: The word "selfheals" is the plural of "selfheal," and it is a little misleading as written: the meaning given here, recovering without outside help, is not what the older word named. A selfheal was originally a plant. In Middle English it appeared as "selfhele" and "sylfhele," and it descends from the Old English "selfhǣlu," a compound of "self" and "hǣl," meaning health or wholeness. The name was given to plants believed to heal wounds by themselves, which is why the Old English form was a plant name long before anyone applied it to people or bodies. Read literally, then, the word describes a herb that cures on its own account, and the modern sense of a body or person healing without intervention is a later extension of that idea. The compound is transparent: "self" and "heal" carry their ordinary meanings, and the plural simply adds the usual "-s" to count more than one plant.

Synonyms: heal-all, prunella, herb, medicinal plant, remedy

Antonyms: INVALID