inveja

Forms

inveja f (plural invejas)^[1] The medieval form is enveja (13th century), with ĩvega in the 14th.^[2][3] inveja is first recorded in the 16th century.^[2][3] Bluteau (1712–1728) still heads the word enveja and refers inveja to it.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin invidia (“envy, ill will”), written Old Galician-Portuguese enveja in the medieval language.^[2][3][1] Nascentes and Wiktionary explain the modern ⟨in-⟩ as a remodelling of the old form on the Latin word.^[6][1] Gonçalves Viana preferred the spelling ⟨enveja⟩, as Nascentes notes.^[7]

The Latin noun is formed from invidus (“envious”) with -ia.^[8][1] The adjective comes from invideō (“to look askance at; to envy”), from in- and videō (“to see”).^[2][9] The DHLF sees in the verb the belief in the evil eye.^[9]

The same Latin word is Galician envexa, Mirandese ambeija, Catalan enveja, Occitan enveja and French envie, the source of the English word envy.^[1][10][11] Old and popular Spanish had Old Spanish enveja, but the standard Spanish envidia is a learned form.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have outros privados... avian-ll'enveja “other favourites envied him” and o demo chẽo d'enveja “the devil full of envy”.^[12] In the Miragres de Santiago Jesus is the one que os judeus por enveja matarõ “whom the Jews killed out of envy”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed close to the Latin one: grief or resentment at another's good fortune.^[2][3] Bluteau (1712–1728) calls it a vile passion, a malignant sorrow at a neighbour's good, and also describes Enveja as a goddess of the ancients.^[5] Figueiredo (1899) adds the senses “an excessive wish to possess another's goods” and “the thing envied”.^[13] Psychoanalysis uses inveja do pênis “penis envy”.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, as enveja.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling ĩvega.^[3][2]
• 15th century – first record of the verb invejar.^[3]
• 1496 – enveja in the História de mui nobre Vespasiano.^[14]
• 16th century – first record of inveja, invejoso and the learned invídia.^[3]
• 1542 – ẽveja in a private letter.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word enveja.^[5]
• 18th century – first record of invejável.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. envy: resentment and sorrow at another person's happiness or success.^[2][16][1]
2. A strong wish to have what belongs to someone else.^[2][17]
3. The person or thing that is envied: A horta dele é a inveja da aldeia.^[2][16]

Word family

• invejar
• invejável
• invejoso

Related words

• invídia
• ínvido
• Latin invidia

Usage notes

Common phrases are matar de inveja “to make someone die of envy” and morder-se de inveja “to be eaten up with envy”.^[16][17][18] não ter inveja a means “to be no worse than”.^[16][17][18] In Lisbon the stressed vowel is often pronounced /ɐ(j)/ rather than /ɛ/.^[18][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. inveja
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. inveja
4. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. inveja
5. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. enveja
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. inveja
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 279
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. envie
10. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4534
12. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. enveja
13. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 772
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. enveja
15. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. inveja
16. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. inveja
17. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. inveja
18. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. inveja