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Selfsame word I know only from the X-Men comics, where it makes the sentences sound very stilted, which is perfect, since the user is the wacky alien Warlock.
Unfortunately self has no actual example of that (I know only that Warlock constantly is a 3rd person person), and this sentence is definitely ungrammatically.
Two questions: a) Is "selfsame" in wide colloquial use or does it sound stilted even if you are no wacky alien, b) if you have the comics, is it used with correct grammar there?
Selfsame as in "the very same":
Here is the Wall Street Journal:
And that frustration must surely give way to hair-pulling apoplexy when those selfsame politicians helpfully suggest that central banks stop sitting on their printing presses and embark on the latest cruise ship-designated round of stimulus to help them out.
From an article published in The Wall Street Journal on August 16, 2011
It is still used in formal or journalistic or even literary writing.
Those selfsame politicians have been laboring long and hard in the basement of the capital building to come up with a plan to replace Obamacare.
I chose the word politicians as the term is easy to find associated with them.
And you can go to ludwig.guru and search for "those selfsame" and you will find many others in newspapers such as the New York Times and The Guardian:
One of the more baffling parts of the recent Viacom versus YouTube court revelations was the astonishing finding that executives from MTV and pals were ordering YouTube to take down videos that infringed its copyright - while their minions were simultaneously uploading those selfsame copies.
It is not widely used. In fact, the uses I have mostly seen are poetical:
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
Selfsame was pretty common in natural informal speech in Northern England, used for emphasis where plain old "same" wouldn't do; e.g.
You'd get the selfsame spanner for half the price over the way.
You've written the selfsame words as your neighbour!
I was just telling her the selfsame thing (as you said).
As Oxford says, this is in current use, not uncommon.
It would be strange to use this word in normal conversation. It has an 18th- or 19th-century flavor to it. (I don't actually know the history of its usage, that's just a native speaker's impression.)
As other answers have pointed out, you'll encounter the word in newspapers, but that doesn't mean it's an innocuous word just like any other. It's got a bit of a flourish; it draws attention to itself.
