Q: I once heard that “jealousy” is a feeling about someone we think we have a right to (such as an intimate partner) and “envy” is a feeling about something we want but are not entitled to. Your thoughts?
A: Typically, we’re “jealous” when we fear losing something or someone important to us, like a spouse or a lover, to someone else. And we’re “envious” when we want something that someone else has. However, “jealous” is often used to mean “envious,” a usage that dates back to the 14th century.
Standard dictionaries now include both senses for the adjective “jealous” and the noun “jealousy,” and some have usage notes that go into more detail. Here’s Merriam-Webster’s usage note, which we’ve broken into paragraphs:
Jealousy vs. Envy
Depending on who you ask, jealousy and envy are either exact synonyms, totally different words, or near-synonyms with some degree of semantic overlap and some differences. It is difficult to make the case, based on the evidence of usage that we have, for either of the first two possibilities.
Both jealousy and envy are often used to indicate that a person is covetous of something that someone else has, but jealousy carries the particular sense of “zealous vigilance” and tends to be applied more exclusively to feelings of protectiveness regarding one’s own advantages or attachments. In the domain of romance, it is more commonly found than envy.
If you were to say “your salt-shaker collection fills me with jealousy,” most people would take it to mean much the same thing as “your salt-shaker collection fills me with envy.” But if someone made a flirtatious comment to your partner, you would likely say that it caused you jealousy, not envy.
As for the etymology, English borrowed the oldest of the terms, “jealous,” from the Old French gelos, but the ultimate source is the ancient Greek ζῆλος (zelos, meaning zeal, jealousy, pride, etc.). In fact, ζῆλος has given us both “zeal” and “jealousy,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
When “jealous” first appeared in early Middle English, Oxford says, it described in biblical language a divine love that “will tolerate no unfaithfulness or defection in the beloved object.”
The earliest OED citation is from the anonymous Ancrene Riwle, or Rules for Anchoresses, dated sometime before 1200:
“Vnder stond ancre … hwas spuse þu art. & hu heis gelus. of alle þine lates” (“Understand, anchoress … whose spouse thou art, and how he is jealous of all thine behaviors”).
Oxford says the adjective soon came to mean “apprehensive of being displaced in the love or good-will of someone; distrustful of the faithfulness of wife, husband, or lover.”
The dictionary’s earliest citation, which we’ve expanded, is from The Owl and the Nightingale, an anonymous Middle English poem believed written in the late 12th or early 13th century:
“He was so gelus of his wive, / That he ne mijte for his live / I-so that man with hire speke” (“He was so jealous of his wife / That he could not, to save his life, / Bear to see a man speak with her”).
When the noun “jealousy” appeared in the early 14th century, the OED says. it meant “fear of being supplanted in the affection, or distrust of the fidelity, of a beloved person, esp. a wife, husband, or lover.”
The earliest OED citation is from Handlyng Synne (1303), a devotional work by the English historian and poet Robert Mannyng:
“But where þe wyfe haþ gelousye, / Þer beþ wrdys grete and hye” (“But where the wife hath jealousy, / there be-eth words great [angry] and high [heated]”).
In the late 14th century, the adjective “jealous” took on its envious sense, which Oxford defines as “feeling ill-will towards another on account of some advantage or superiority which he or she possesses or may possess.”
The dictionary’s first citation, which we’ve expanded, is from the early Prologue A of The Legend of Good Women (circa 1385), by Chaucer. In this passage, Chaucer defends himself in the “court of love” against accusations that his work has offended women:
“For in your court is many a losengeour, / And many a queynte totelere accusour, / That tabouren in your eres many a thing / For hate, or for Ielous imagining, / And for to han with yow som daliaunce. Envye (I prey to god yeve hir mischaunce!) / Is lavender in the grete court alway.”
(“For in your court is many a flatterer, / And many a clever whispering accuser, / That drum in your ears many a thing / For hate, or for jealous [envious] imagining, / And for to have with you some dalliance. / Envy (I pray to God give her mischance!) / Is laundress [spreader of dirty laundry] in the great court always.”)
The next OED citation describes Jason, the hero of Greek mythology: “Alle were Ialouse of him, But Iason [Jason] neuer thought on none of them.” From The Historie of Jason (1477), William Caxton’s translation of Histoire de Jason (1460), by Raoul Le Fèvre.
[As we’ve written on the blog, the letter “j” did not exist in the 15th century, but a “j”-like “i” with a tail was sometimes used in titles as a swash, or ornamental, form of “i.” At the time, the letter “i” could be pronounced as either the modern vowel “i” or consonant “j.”]
When the noun “envy” first appeared in the late 13th century, Oxford says, it meant “the feeling of mortification and ill-will occasioned by the contemplation of superior advantages possessed by another.”
English borrowed the term from the Old French envie, but the ultimate source is Latin, the noun invidia (envy or spite) and the verb invidere (to look at maliciously or to envy).
The dictionary’s earliest citation is from “The Fall and Passion” (circa 1280), an anonymous poem that describes Satan’s envy over Adam’s privileged position in the Garden of Eden, a position Satan might have had if not for his fall:
“To him þe deuil had envie, þat he in his stid schold be broȝte” (“To him [Adam] the devil had envy, that he in his stead should be brought [to Eden]”). From Early English Poems and Lives of Saints (1862), edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.
The first OED citaton for the adjective “envious” is from The Man of Law’s Tale in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (circa 1386). Here’s an expanded version:
“O Sathan, envious syn thilke day / That thou were chaced from oure heritage” (“O Satan, envious since the same day / That thou were banished from our heritage”).
As for the verb “envy,” the dictionary’s first example is from The Wife of Bath’s Prologue in The Canterbury Tales: “I nyl nat enuye no virginitee” (“I will not envy no virginity”).
And her actions, as we learn, speak even louder than her words.
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