[f. as prec. + -IST.] One who makes too frequent use of the pronoun I; one who thinks or talks too much of himself; a selfish person. Also attrib.
1714. Addison, Spect., No. 562, ¶ 4. The most eminent Egotist … was Montaigne, the author of the … Essays.
1806. R. Jamieson, Pop. Ballads & Songs, I. Pref. 4. A man, that acknowledges favours may be allowed to be an egotist.
1830. Mackintosh, Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, I. 175. As much an egotist as Montaigne; but not so agreeably so.
1846. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 452. Such is, in the egotist and vulgar meaning of the phrase, the genius of the ambitious.
1853. Robertson, Lect. (1858), 240. The egotist is ever speaking and thinking of that which belongs to himself alone and comes from himself.
1860. Reade, Cloister & H., lvii. The sailors were preparing to desert the sinking ship in the little boat … then there was a rush of egotists; and thirty souls crowded into it.
