envidia

Forms

envidia f (plural envidias)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin invidia (“ill will, envy”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is formed from invidus (“envious”) with the suffix -ia,^[5] and this from the verb invideō (“to look at with ill will, to envy”), made of in- and videō (“to see”).^[2][6][1] Bénaben and the DHLF see in the verb an allusion to the belief in the evil eye.^[7][8] De Vaan traces the verb for “see” to Proto-Indo-European *uid-eh₁- (“to see”).^[9]

Old Spanish also had the inherited form enveja, found in the Libro de Alexandre, which matches Portuguese enveja (now inveja), Galician envexa, Catalan enveja and Old Occitan enveia.^[10][11][12] Coromines notes that this regular outcome lived on in Catalan, Occitan and Portuguese, while the other Romance languages took forms more or less shaped by Latin.^[13] French envie goes back to the same Latin word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where Joseph's brothers ovieron grant envydia “felt great envy” of him.^[14] Corominas dates the word from Berceo (1220–1250), who has Cain kill his brother por envidia.^[2][3][14] The Fuero de Cáceres (c. 1234–1275) is the earliest hit in a contemporary manuscript.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish wrote enbidia, enuidia, embidia and ynbidia beside envidia; the Tentative Dictionary also records enfidia.^[15][16] In the prose of Alfonso X the word means both the grief felt at another's good fortune and plain enmity.^[17] Nebrija's dictionaries of the 1490s spell it embidia.^[18]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the pain felt at another's good and prosperity, quoting Fray Luis de Granada.^[19] Terreros noted the weaker use for a mere wish for something, and a noble emulation.^[20] The Academy recorded the milder sense “emulation, honest desire”, the phrase comerse de envidia and the saying si la envidia tiña fuera, ¡qué de tiñosos hubiera! “if envy were ringworm, how many would be scabby” in 1817.^[21][22] Today the word is also used kindly for a wish to have or do what someone else has or does.^[23][24]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[14]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1234–1275 – the Fuero de Cáceres, the first hit in a contemporary manuscript.^[14]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses it in the sense “enmity”.^[17]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme, spelt enbidia.^[25]
• 1817 – the Academy records comerse de envidia and the saying about ringworm.^[21]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin invidia.^[26]

Meanings

Noun

1. envy: sadness or resentment at another person's good fortune: No podía disimular la envidia que le daba el éxito de su primo.^[4][23][1]
2. Emulation; a wish to have or do something that one lacks and someone else has, often without reproach.^[4][23]

Word family

• envidioso
• envidiar
• envidiable

Related words

• ver
• ínvido
• evidente
• Latin invidia
• Portuguese inveja

Usage notes

Comerse de envidia (colloquial) means “to be eaten up with envy”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 713
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. envidia
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. envidia
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. invidia
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 265
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. envidia
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. envie
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. invidia
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1923
13. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 409
14. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. envidia
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. envidia
16. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 208
17. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. envidia
18. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. envidia
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 530
20. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 62
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 372
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 306
23. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. envidia
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. envidia
25. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. envidia
26. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 440