Envy vs Covetousness - What's the difference?
envy | covetousness |
Resentful desire of something possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions).
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:No bliss enjoyed by us excites his envy more.
*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
*:Envy , to which the ignoble mind's a slave, / Is emulation in the learned or brave.
*
*:Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracydistilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour.
*1983 , (Stanley Rosen), Plato’s Sophist , p.66:
*:Theodorus assures Socrates that no envy will prevent the Stranger from responding
An object of envious notice or feeling.
* (1800-1859)
*:This constitution in former days used to be the envy of the world.
(lb) Hatred, enmity, ill-feeling.
*:
*:Syre said la?celot vnto Arthur by this crye that ye haue made ye wyll put vs that ben aboute yow in grete Ieopardy / for there be many Knyghtes that haue grete enuye to vs / therfore whan we shal mete at the daye of Iustes there wille be hard skyfte amonge vs
*1598 , (William Shakespeare), :
*:But let me tell the World, / If he out-liue the enuie of this day, / England did neuer owe so sweet a hope, / So much misconstrued in his Wantonnesse.
(lb) Emulation; rivalry.
* (1586-c.1639)
*:Such as cleanliness and decency / Prompt to a virtuous envy .
(lb) Public odium; ill repute.
*(Ben Jonson) (1572-1637)
*:to lay the envy of the war upon Cicero
To feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions.
(obsolete) To have envious feelings (at).
*, II.3.3:
*Jeremy Taylor:
(obsolete) To give (something) to (someone) grudgingly or reluctantly; to begrudge.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.v:
(obsolete) To show malice or ill will; to rail.
*Shakespeare:
(obsolete) To do harm to; to injure; to disparage.
* J. Fletcher
(obsolete) To hate.
(obsolete) To emulate.
Immoderate desire for the possession of something, especially for wealth.
* 1588: La Placette, Jean Of the Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome
* 1661: Johnson, J. The morning-exercise at Cripple-gate
* 1815: Lavington, Samuel Sermons and other discourses, Volume 1
* 1976: Ellul, Jacques The Ethics of Freedom page 134
As nouns the difference between envy and covetousness
is that envy is resentful desire of something possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions) while covetousness is immoderate desire for the possession of something, especially for wealth.As a verb envy
is to feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions.envy
English
Noun
Verb
(en-verb)- I do not envy at their wealth, titles, offices;let me live quiet and at ease.
- Who would envy at the prosperity of the wicked?
- But that sweet Cordiall, which can restore / A loue-sick hart, she did to him enuy […].
- He hasenvied against the people.
- If I make a lie / To gain your love and envy my best mistress, / Put me against a wall.
- (Marlowe)
- (Spenser)
covetousness
English
Noun
(-)- He which will yield to Fear. mu?t nece??arily yield to Covetou?ne?s or any inordinate De?ire.
- Covetou?ne?s is the yelow Jaundice of the foul, which ari?es from the over-flowing of the heart with love to yellow gold, by which a Chri?tian is dull'd and deadned.
- Covetousness prevents all good, and is and inlet and encouragement to evil.
- In obvious compensation and opposition the fear of nothingness becomes the source of covetousness ...