Envy vs Spite - What's the difference?
envy | spite |
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.
Ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart; a desire to vex or injure; petty malice; grudge; rancor.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) Vexation; chagrin; mortification.
To treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart.
(obsolete) To be angry at; to hate.
To fill with spite; to offend; to vex.
In obsolete terms the difference between envy and spite
is that envy is to emulate while spite is vexation; chagrin; mortification.In transitive terms the difference between envy and spite
is that envy is to feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions while spite is to fill with spite; to offend; to vex.As a preposition spite is
notwithstanding; despite.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)
spite
English
Etymology 1
From a shortening of (etyl) despit, from (etyl) despit (whence despite). Compare also Dutch spijt.Noun
(en-noun)- He was so filled with spite for his ex-wife, he could not hold down a job.
- They did it just for spite .
- This is the deadly spite that angers.
- "The time is out of joint: O cursed spite." Shakespeare, Hamlet
Verb
(spit)- She soon married again, to spite her ex-husband.
- The Danes, then pagans, spited places of religion. — Fuller.
- Darius, spited at the Magi, endeavoured to abolish not only their learning, but their language. — Sir. W. Temple.