Jealous vs Zealous - What's the difference?
jealous | zealous |
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)”.
Full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.
* 1791 , , volume 1, page 238:
* 1896 , , A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (2004 edition), page 122:
* 1940 , Foster Rhea Dulles, America Learns to Play: A history of popular recreation, 1607-1940 , page 61:
* 2011 April 4, "
Zealous is a related term of jealous.
As adjectives the difference between jealous and zealous
is that 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 while zealous is full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.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
*zealous
English
Alternative forms
* zelousAdjective
(en adjective)- Johnson was truly zealous for the success of "The Adventurer;" and very soon after his engaging in it, he wrote the following letter:
- Doubtless many will exclaim against the Roman Catholic Church for this; but the simple truth is that Protestantism was no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine.
- and there were few more zealous dancers at the fashionable balls in the Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg.
Newt Gingrich," Time (retrieved 9 Sept 2013):
- Newt Gingrich . . . left Congress in 1998, following GOP midterm-election losses that many blamed on his zealous pursuit of Bill Clinton's impeachment.