Sense file
How the sense moved
The archive follows the dated record first, then reads the social or rhetorical pressure that hardened, softened, narrowed, or reversed the word.
Older meaning
Derived from Narcissus, the mythic self-lover.
Modern meaning
A self-absorbed person; in some settings, a clinical label.
Research lens
Important because pop psychology often turns an old myth into a blunt social weapon.
Meaning trail
Mythic root
Narcissus
A story about self-fascination.
Psychology bridge
narcissism
Theory stabilized the trait language.
Now
self-absorbed person
Popular speech broadened and blurred the term.