envious

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English envious,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman envious, Old French envieus (modern envieux),^[3][4][5] from Latin invidiōsus (“full of envy”),^[3][4][6][7] from invidia (“envy”).^[3][4][6] The Oxford dictionaries describe the French adjective as formed from envie (“envy”) on the pattern of the Latin one.^[8][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1113–19, meaning envious, jealous or resentful, and as a noun an envious person.^[10] The Latin adjective is also the source of envidioso, invidioso and invejoso,^[3][4] and of English invidious, a doublet of envious.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Eager to equal or outdo others; emulous: before 1300, in Floris and Blancheflour, of a man keen at the chessboard.^[3][2] Etymonline dates the adjective to about 1300.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered several kinds of ill feeling: the MED records it for hostility and enmity in the Cursor Mundi and for the wish to rival others,^[2] and the OED has "malicious, spiteful" from about 1330 to 1713.^[3] The modern sense, discontented at another's good fortune or qualities, is first quoted from Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale (about 1386).^[3] Chaucer and Gower used it for envious, spiteful and ill-willed people.^[11] In the late 16th and 17th centuries it could also mean grudging or sparing (1580–1667), enviable (1590–1665) and, like invidious, likely to cause ill will (1630–40), senses now obsolete.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as being pained by another's excellence or happiness.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1300 – emulous, eager to rival others (obsolete by 1820).^[3][2]
• c. 1330 – malicious, spiteful (obsolete by 1713).^[3]
• c. 1386 – feeling envy at another's good fortune, in Chaucer.^[3]
• 1580 – grudging, sparing (obsolete).^[3]
• 1590 – enviable, in Spenser's Faerie Queene (obsolete).^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Feeling or showing envy; resentful of or longing for what someone else has: She was envious of her neighbour's new garden.^[13][7][3]
2. (obsolete) Malicious, spiteful; full of ill will.^[3][2]
3. (obsolete) Eager to equal or surpass others; emulous.^[3][2]

Word family

• enviously
• enviousness
• nonenvious
• unenvious

Related words

• envy
• invidious

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins