Jealous vs Envied - What's the difference?
jealous | envied |
Suspecting rivalry in love; troubled by worries that one might have been replaced in someone's affections; suspicious of a lover or spouse's fidelity.
Protective, zealously guarding, careful in the protection of something one has or appreciates.
Envious; feeling resentful of someone for a perceived advantage, material or otherwise.
* 1891 , Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
* 1899 , Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Suspecting, suspicious.
* 1823 , Walter Scott, Quentin Durward
1.2 1.2 Envy vs. Jealousy However, this distinction is not reflected in usage, as reflected in the quotations of famous authors (above) using the word ' jealous in the sense “envious (of the possessions of others)”.
(envy)
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.
As an adjective jealous
is suspecting rivalry in love; troubled by worries that one might have been replaced in someone's affections; suspicious of a lover or spouse's fidelity.As a verb envied is
(envy).jealous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- For you must not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. —Exodus 34:14 (NET)
- I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die.
- The neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy.
- At length [...] the Duke demanded to know of Durward who his guide was, [...] and wherefore he had been led to entertain suspicion of him. To the first of these questions Quentin Durward answered by naming Hayraddin Maugrabin, the Bohemian; [...] and in reply to the third point he mentioned what had happened in the Franciscan convent near Namur, how the Bohemian had been expelled from the holy house, and how, jealous of his behaviour, he had dogged him to a rendezvous with one of William de la Marck's lanzknechts, where he overheard them arrange a plan for surprising the ladies who were under his protection.
Usage notes
Some usage guides seek to distinguish "jealous" from “envious”, using jealous' to mean “protective of one’s ''own'' position or possessions” – one “jealously ''guards'' what one has” – and ''envious'' to mean “desirous of ''others’'' position or possessions” – one “''envies'' what others have”. “Envious/Jealous]”, Paul Brians, ''[http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/book.html Common Errors in English Usage]''This distinction is also maintained in the psychological and philosophical literature.See [http://plato.stanford.edu/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy], [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/envy/ Envy], [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/envy/
Derived terms
* jealously adverb * jealousy noun * jealousness nounReferences
Anagrams
*envied
English
Verb
(head)Anagrams
* * *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)