| Someone, I forget who, said on this forum that they mean completely different things. According to thesaurus.com, they're synonyms of each other: http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/jealous?s=t http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/envious Thoughts? Anyone else think that they mean different things? |
| Different things in my opinion. When you're envious you might be lacking something whereas with jealousy you might be scared of losing something -- which usually brings forth feelings like insecurity, anxiety and/or fear? Either way being envious seems more lighthearted. |
| Envy is a two-person situation, jealousy is a three-person situation. |
Latent said: Envy is a two-person situation, jealousy is a three-person situation. |
| They are synonymous, the dictionary is correct. Although when you fear your wife may being unfaithful etc for example is called jealousy instead of envy. While if you really like your neighbors car or wife and wish you could have them is more often described as being envy of your neighbor although it wouldn't be wrong to say you are jealous of your neighbor. |
| They're similar, but they're different. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Envy_vs_Jealousy http://writingexplained.org/jealousy-vs-envy-differences Jealousy means you're scared that someone will take something/someone away from you. It's a lot more negative than being envious of someone, which means you just want something they have (a talent, skill, etc). To me I think jealousy is used for people, and envy for... concepts/ideas. It's hard to explain. Anyway, it's not your fault, this language is bullshit. |
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| Now you're wondering if there's white text in any of my other posts. Over there, I'm everywhere. I know that. |
dfsafsaf said: Jealousy imo can be somewhat lighthearted (when you're like jealous, but don't really have any ominous feeling towards that person). And also of course the jealousy where you also come to hate that person and want to harm him in one way or another. And envy I see as only something completely negative with ominous feelings. But that's just how I look at it. That's how my English teacher described it too. That envy is essentially a more powerful form of jealousy, but they ultimately mean the same thing and both are acceptable to use. |
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| They don't though? Jealousy implies fear, envy just implies want. |
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Usagi said: dfsafsaf said: Jealousy imo can be somewhat lighthearted (when you're like jealous, but don't really have any ominous feeling towards that person). And also of course the jealousy where you also come to hate that person and want to harm him in one way or another. And envy I see as only something completely negative with ominous feelings. But that's just how I look at it. That's how my English teacher described it too. That envy is essentially a more powerful form of jealousy, but they ultimately mean the same thing and both are acceptable to use. This is how I think about it and how dictionaries think about it too. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english-thesaurus/jealous The world's most respected dictionary says they're synonyms, meaning they have very similar meanings. Idk what more evidence you guys need? |
| Envy is when you want something someone else has. Jealousy is when you don't want to lose something you have. |
Caelidesu said: Homer is right. |
Klad said: This.Latent said: Envy is a two-person situation, jealousy is a three-person situation. Also envious is more desperate and jealous is more greedy. |
 hiSets Last FM Anime List Manga List Clue no. 2: Somewhere in one of the pictures in my forum signature. |
Chiki said: This is how I think about it and how dictionaries think about it too. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english-thesaurus/jealous The world's most respected dictionary says they're synonyms, meaning they have very similar meanings. Idk what more evidence you guys need? But very similar =/= the same. English is a complex language. We have all these different words. And sometimes we have words that, on the surface, appear to mean the same thing, but actually have subtle nuances which mean they're not quite the same, and it depends on context. For example, there are several words that are synonyms for the word "sad". But they all have different contextual usage and very slight difference in meaning. Upset, depressed, down, sorrowful, miserable, regretful, etc. They're in the same family of words in that they're describing a similar feeling. But, again, they don't describe the exact same levels of sadness, nor the exact same types of sadness. You can't just look at synonyms of a word and go "oh yeah these mean exactly the same thing and can be used interchangeably", because that's not how the English language works. People are lazy and want it to be that way, but it isn't. And if you act like it is, then you'll just end up using words incorrectly and you'll look like an idiot to those of us who actually care. |
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| I think they're approximately the same thing. If you use envy in place of jealousy in a sentence, no one is going to correct you. That's all that matters. |
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Dimethylanime said: I think they're approximately the same thing. If you use envy in place of jealousy in a sentence, no one is going to correct you. That's all that matters. *cough* |
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Cartox said: My thought exactly. It's not just about the english language, I think it works the same way in any language : similarity always implies difference(s). Therefore, if two words are similar, it means they're not the exact same thing. I don't think I need to write more because I'll just end up paraphrasing Zazie122. Indeed. I didn't want to make assumptions though, since the only other language I can speak is Japanese. But I'm sure it is the case for most languages, at the very least. If there are two words that are very similar, chances are that they at least originally meant something different. Sometimes two words will come to mean pretty much the same thing over time, but they started out in different contexts. Another example is sea vs ocean. Originally, "sea" referred to a large body of water that's surrounded by land on all sides (Mediterranean Sea, Caspian Sea, etc), whereas "ocean" referred to the entire expanse of salt water that covers about 70% of the Earth's surface (but now it's been divided due to better exploration/science). People use them to mean the same thing, but really, they don't. I think part of it might also be due to the language of origin, and they borrowed words from different parts of the world, so there were different cultural nuances as well. "Sea" is originally Germanic, whereas "ocean" is Greek. I can't explain this very well and I probably make no sense, but trust me -- there are many reasons why English has words that mean similar things but are also different. It's a complex language (and also bullshit at times really) and people want to simplify it out of laziness, but that's not how it works. |
Zazie122Dec 8, 2015 4:39 AM
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Latent said: This usually ^Envy is a two-person situation, jealousy is a three-person situation. |
| Today they say you're crazy, tomorrow they will say you're a genious. |
| "envy" means etymologically spoken the same Thing as Germanic-based "nithe" and has basically "looking at Things with Hatred/Malice" in its original Sense of Meaning. "jealousy" has "zeal" in it's Meaning, similar to German "Eifersucht" which is basically "Eifer" (Zeal/Eagerness) + "-sucht" (Seeking or Addiction). The Verb "eifern" can be described as "(to) strive for" in English. So "Eifersucht" or "jealousy" becomes "the State of having an Addiction when striving for Things" or "the State of seeking to strive for something". Conclusion: if you're envious of someone, you regard him (or her) with "Hatred" or "Malice" and if you're jealous of someone, you are either depended on or even addicted to someone. Hence why being jealous is usually coined with romantic Relationships and being envious with material Things of others, and doing those on the Reverse would contradict itself when you regard someone you love with "Hatred" or "Malice" or when you are addicted to striving for material Goods you don't even have. |
NoboruDec 8, 2015 5:13 AM
Caelidesu said: That was perfect for this thread :) |
Bernkastel said: Technically they're actually completely different emotions. Jealousy is more involved in perceived loss, e.g. if your parents gave more affection to your sibling. In this case you're jealous of your sibling for receiving more love, and anxious/insecure over the love taken away from you by your sibling. Envy is more a resentment towards another's higher status, e.g. if someone was better than you at a sport. In this case you feel discontentment and resentment for their superior achievements. The specific meanings are very blurred in everyday conversations, like what happened with terms like antisocial vs asocial, but it's still good to make the distinction. Latent said: Envy is a two-person situation, jealousy is a three-person situation. |
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| I tend to interpret it like Jealous = "I don't feel like how close they are" or "I want that" Envious = "I dont want you to have what I want if I dont" |
Caelidesu said: |
dfsafsaf said: Jealousy imo can be somewhat lighthearted (when you're like jealous, but don't really have any ominous feeling towards that person). And also of course the jealousy where you also come to hate that person and want to harm him in one way or another. And envy I see as only something completely negative with ominous feelings. But that's just how I look at it. I look at it the other way. Like I could envy a girl her looks but never hate her for it and just think like "damn she's pretty I wish I was as pretty" . Whilst when I'm jealous I get this tiny feeling in my stomach that makes me wish that he/she stopped doing what's causing me to be jealous. I could be wrong, but this is how I interpret it. |
 BecauseAllYourThoughtsAreWicked | Sailor Mars |
Zazie122 said: Chiki said: This is how I think about it and how dictionaries think about it too. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english-thesaurus/jealous The world's most respected dictionary says they're synonyms, meaning they have very similar meanings. Idk what more evidence you guys need? But very similar =/= the same. English is a complex language. We have all these different words. And sometimes we have words that, on the surface, appear to mean the same thing, but actually have subtle nuances which mean they're not quite the same, and it depends on context. For example, there are several words that are synonyms for the word "sad". But they all have different contextual usage and very slight difference in meaning. Upset, depressed, down, sorrowful, miserable, regretful, etc. They're in the same family of words in that they're describing a similar feeling. But, again, they don't describe the exact same levels of sadness, nor the exact same types of sadness. You can't just look at synonyms of a word and go "oh yeah these mean exactly the same thing and can be used interchangeably", because that's not how the English language works. People are lazy and want it to be that way, but it isn't. And if you act like it is, then you'll just end up using words incorrectly and you'll look like an idiot to those of us who actually care. I never said they mean the exact same thing. Just because the thread title has the word "same" in it doesn't mean that I think they mean the same thing. They can be used interchangeably in most contexts, that's for sure. And I don't agree with the people trying to make a fine-grained distinction between jealous and envious. In psychology, there might be a difference, but this difference was only invented by psychologists to better explain scientific phenomena. In real life usage it's hard to see much of a difference between the two. |
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