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Melancholy vs Envy - What's the difference?

melancholy | envy |

As nouns the difference between melancholy and envy

is that melancholy is black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies while envy is resentful desire of something possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions).

As an adjective melancholy

is affected with great sadness or depression.

As a verb envy is

to feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions.

melancholy

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Affected with great sadness or depression.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes

    Synonyms

    * (thoughtful sadness) (l) * See also

    Noun

    (melancholies)
  • (historical) Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
  • *, Bk.I, New York 2001, p.148:
  • Melancholy , cold and dry, thick, black, and sour,is a bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourishing the bones.
  • Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
  • * 1593 , (William Shakespeare), , V. i. 34:
  • My mind was troubled with deep melancholy .

    envy

    English

    Noun

  • 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
  • Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions.
  • (obsolete) To have envious feelings (at).
  • *, II.3.3:
  • I do not envy at their wealth, titles, offices;let me live quiet and at ease.
  • *Jeremy Taylor:
  • Who would envy at the prosperity of the wicked?
  • (obsolete) To give (something) to (someone) grudgingly or reluctantly; to begrudge.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.v:
  • But that sweet Cordiall, which can restore / A loue-sick hart, she did to him enuy  […].
  • (obsolete) To show malice or ill will; to rail.
  • *Shakespeare:
  • He hasenvied against the people.
  • (obsolete) To do harm to; to injure; to disparage.
  • * J. Fletcher
  • If I make a lie / To gain your love and envy my best mistress, / Put me against a wall.
  • (obsolete) To hate.
  • (Marlowe)
  • (obsolete) To emulate.
  • (Spenser)