to find oneself
100
5.8
- phrasal verb
- /faɪnd ˈwʌnˌsɛlf/
- Informal
:
encontrarse a sí mismo
- After spending months in self-reflection, he finally found himself and understood his true passion for art.
- one finds oneself
- find yourself through writing
- chance to find yourself
It is a terrible thing to find oneself in a mode where things feel sad, you feel guilty, you're exhausted.
- It is a terrible thing to find oneself in a mode where things feel sad, you feel guilty, you're exhausted.
Examples
-
But Marissa's patience paid off, and she soon found herself mesmerized by the meeting.
Fiction book (1991) -
Twenty minutes later, Marissa found herself walking unsteadily down the front steps of the clinic.
Fiction book (1991) -
And so, I found myself directing my family like traffic.
-
But some nights, when I was working late at the movie theater, I found myself wondering, what if she was right?
-
In college, she toyed with many subjects, but ultimately found herself attracted to African history.
Academic text (2005) -
Eventually she dropped out of high school, but she found herself missing those morning commutes gone astray.
Fiction book (1990) -
The irony was, for the first time in her career, she found herself preoccupied in other ways.
Fiction book (1990) -
A wave washed them in, and Ellen found herself sprawled beside her mother on the sand.
Fiction book (1991) -
On a regular basis, it is easy to find oneself listening to arguments about the advancement of teaching.
Academic text (2010) -
Surrounded by so many kindred voices stretching over generations, you'll find yourself thinking, I can do this.
Academic text (2010)
How Self-Aware
- Informal
100
5.8
265
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a clear compositional link: 'find' = discover and 'oneself' = one's own self, so the phrase literally suggests discovering oneself. However, the psychological/existential sense of coming to understand one's identity or purpose is a metaphorical extension and may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure, even though many languages use similar reflexive constructions. This makes the expression partially but not wholly transparent.
Etymology
Find oneself comes from the simple image of looking for a lost thing and then finding it, but the lost thing is oneself, meaning your feelings, values, or goals. So, to find oneself means to 'discover who you are' after time, travel, or new experiences.