different between envy vs covetous

English

Etymology

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”).

Displaced native Old English æfest.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nvi/

Noun

envy (countable and uncountable, plural envies)

1. Resentful desire of something possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions). [from 13th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Samuel Simmons, line 263–264:

     No bliss enjoyed by us excites his envy more.

   • 1804, Alexander Pope, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, page 71:

     Envy, to which the ignoble mind's a slave,
     Is emulation in the learned or brave.

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, page 9:

     distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour.

   • 1983, Stanley Rosen, Plato's Sophist: The Drama of Original and Image, page 66:

     Theodorus assures Socrates that no envy will prevent the Stranger from responding

2. An object of envious notice or feeling.
   • 1843, Thomas Macaulay, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, Carey & Hart, page 277:

     This constitution in former days used to be the envy of the world[.]

   • 2008, Lich King, "Black Metal Sucks", Toxic Zombie Onslaught.

3. (obsolete) Hatred, enmity, ill-feeling. [14th–18th c.]
4. (obsolete) Emulation; rivalry.
   • c. 1631-1636, John Ford, The Fancies Chaste and Noble

     Such as cleanliness and decency
     Prompt to a virtuous envy.

5. (obsolete) Public odium; ill repute.

   • to lay the envy of the war upon Cicero

Translations

Verb

envy (third-person singular simple present envies, present participle envying, simple past and past participle envied)

1. (transitive) To feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions. [from 14th c.]
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To have envious feelings (at). [15th-18th c.]
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     Who envy at the prosperity of the wicked?

3. (obsolete, transitive) To give (something) to (someone) grudgingly or reluctantly; to begrudge. [16th–18th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.v:

     But that sweet Cordiall, which can restore
     A loue-sick hart, she did to him enuy […].

4. (obsolete) To show malice or ill will; to rail.
5. (obsolete) To do harm to; to injure; to disparage.
   • 1621, John Fletcher The Pilgrim

     If I make a lie
     To gain your love and envy my best mistress,
     Put me against a wall.

6. (obsolete) To hate.
7. (obsolete) To emulate.

Related terms

• envious
• social envy

Translations

Anagrams

• veny

English

Etymology

From Middle English coveitous, from Anglo-Norman *cuveitus, from Medieval Latin as if *cupiditosus, from Latin cupiditas (“desire”); see covet.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?v'?t-?s, IPA^(key): /?k?v?t?s/

Adjective

covetous (comparative more covetous, superlative most covetous)

1. Extremely keen or desirous, especially to obtain and possess something belonging to someone else; avaricious.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:greedy

Derived terms

• covetousness
• covetously

Related terms

• covet

Translations

Further reading

• covetous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• covetous in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.