A variant or archaic form of 'itself' or a Scots term related to 'oneself' or one's own self, property, or identity.
From Scots 'ain' (own) + 'self,' literally meaning 'own-self.' This construction parallels English reflexive pronouns and shows Scots English's distinct grammatical structures compared to Standard English.
In Scots, 'ainsell' makes perfect logical sense—if 'ain' means 'own,' then 'ainsell' is literally 'own-self,' which is more transparent than English's 'itself' (which comes from 'it' + 'self'). Scots speakers were actually being more logical!
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