jealousy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gelusie, also jelosie,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French gelosie (modern jalousie), also meaning "enthusiasm, love, longing",^[4][5][6] formed on gelos (“keen, zealous; jealous”), the source of jealous, with a noun suffix.^[4][5][7] The adjective comes from Late Latin zēlus (“zeal”) through Vulgar Latin *zēlōsus, and the Late Latin noun is ζῆλος (zēlos), which sometimes meant "jealousy" but more often "emulation, rivalry, zeal".^[4][8][9] zeal and zealous are later borrowings of the same word, from Latin.^[4] The Anglo-Norman gelusie is recorded from the 13th century for jealousy and for zeal for or against someone.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In biblical language, the jealousy of God: in the Ancrene Riwle, about 1225.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200, of sexual possessiveness and suspicion,^[4] and the OED's first example of jealousy in love, the fear of being supplanted, is from 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word kept the wider range of its French source.^[4][5] It could mean anger or indignation against someone (about 1425–1649) or eager devotion to a person or cause (1436–1565), senses now carried by zeal,^[5][4] and also care or watchfulness, the link being the idea of guarding something.^[4] From Chaucer, about 1385, it meant suspicion or mistrust in general, a sense the OED now marks as dialectal;^[5][3] Merriam-Webster labels it British dialect.^[3] Resentment of a rival's success or advantage is recorded from about 1425, in Lydgate,^[5] and vigilance in guarding a possession from 1526, in Tyndale's Bible.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "suspicion in love".^[11] In 1834 the word was also used for a slatted window blind, a jalousie.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – the jealousy of God, in biblical language.^[5]
• 1303 – fear of losing a lover's affection.^[5]
• c. 1385 – suspicion, mistrust (now dialect).^[5]
• c. 1425 – resentment of another's advantage.^[5]
• c. 1425 – anger, indignation (obsolete).^[5]
• 1526 – watchful care for something.^[5]
• 1834 – a slatted blind, a jalousie.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A feeling of suspicion and fear of being replaced by a rival in someone's affection: His jealousy ruined the friendship.
2. Resentment or envy of someone else's success, advantages or possessions.
3. Watchful care in protecting something one has; close vigilance.
4. (dialect) Suspicion or mistrust.

Related words

• jealous
• jalousie
• zealous
• zeal
• envy

Usage notes

Usage writers distinguish jealousy from envy: envy is a longing for something that another person has won or achieved, while jealousy is resentment of a rival who has gained, or might gain, something one wants or has,^[2][4] as in love or ambition.^[4] The American Heritage Dictionary notes that in everyday use the two overlap.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.