Situation: Alice is telling Bob that Charlie doesn't love himself, like Bob thinks. In fact, Charlie hates himself.
"You don't know him. He's the antithesis of a narcissist. He's a ______"
I'm looking for a single (preferably non-compound) word that describes a guy who hates himself (too much).
I've already discarded self-hater and self-loather. These words are not listed (even as derivatives) in Oxford or AHD. And like this ngram shows, self-hatred and self-loathing come up frequently enough; but 'self-hater' and 'self-loather' don't. Besides, they're compound words.
Neither Thesaurus.com nor Oxford lists an antonym of narcissist; which Oxford defines as
a person who admires himself or herself too much, especially their appearance
I'm not looking to paraphrase my sentence. I'm looking for a single word; which needs to be more impactful here. Just like saying "he's a narcissist" has more impact than saying "he loves himself (too much)."
Can anyone think of a word which would be a good fit in the given sentence?
Best Answer
You’re asking a lot for one word.
The only reason that narcissist works as a single word is because of its extended use as a metaphor derived from classical mythology. In particular, it’s a direct reference to the myth of Narcissus, the boy who loved himself too much and others too little.
Unless you can find a figure from literature or myth to serve as a foil for both those properties at once, you’re going to have a hard time satisfying your request. And I can’t think of any.
The closest word I can find for someone who beats themself up too much, or doesn't have enough self-love, is a flagellant. But even that word is improved by an explicit self reference, as in an autoflagellant.
These aren’t common words, and you may risk being misunderstood. They might even get the wrong connotation altogether, such as being a masochist or religious penitent.
Trying to describe someone who hates themself with a single word is going to be hard, although I see why you would like one for this particular instance. Being too much the altruist or having a messiah complex won’t fit the parallelism of your phrase.