self-talk
(SELF.tawk)
n.
Words or phrases said to oneself, especially for therapeutic or motivational reasons.
Example Citation:
For any age, she said, self-talk represents a useful tool in staying focused. A positive statement to oneself during a game, said Jerry Stern, a Columbus psychologist certified as an Olympic sports therapist, spurs the participant to a peak state. Still, he doesn't "suggest talking to oneself out loud."
—Rosanne Rosen, "For Your Ears Only," The Columbus Dispatch, January 4, 2002
Earliest Citation:
He mixes the scientistic latinisms of the old sociology (''participation framework,'' ''referent-response'') with the weird ungrammatical coinages of the new (''say-foring,'' ''commentarylike,'' ''self-talk'').
—Geoffrey Nunberg, "The Theatricality of Everyday Life," The New York Times, May 10, 1981
Notes:
The earliest media citation uses this phrase as a quotation from the book Forms of Talk, by Erving Goffman, which was published in 1981.
