envy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A feeling of wanting something that someone else has.

   She looked at her friend's new car with envy.

2. 2
   verb

   To wish you had what someone else has.

   I envy you for living so close to the beach.

3. 3
   noun

   A person or thing that other people admire and wish they had.

   Their beautiful garden was the envy of the whole street.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Envy comes from Latin invidere, “to regard maliciously” or “grudge,” formed from in-, “into,” and videre, “to see.” Early English meanings included “hostility” and “enmity.”

Etymology tree Old French enviebor. Middle English envie English envy From Middle English envie, from Old French envie, from Latin invidia (“envy”), from invidere (“to look at with malice”), from in- (“on, upon”) + videre (“to look, see”). Doublet of envie. Cognate to Proto-Slavic *zavistь (“envy”). Displaced native Old English æfest and Old English nīþ.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary