2020-10-24
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด J – Jealous - Zealous – envious
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้อง ในที่นี้ เป็นไปตามมาตรฐาน ของภาษา
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐานถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง Jealous=‘JEL-uhs’
ออกเสียง Zealous=‘ZEL-uhs’
ออกเสียง Envious = ‘EN-vee-uhs’
Dictionary.com
VOCAB BUILDER
What does envious mean?
Envious means feeling, full of, or expressing envy
—a mostly negative feeling of desire for something thatsomeone else has and you do not.
Envy is not a good feeling
—it can be described as a mix of admiration and discontent.
But it’s not necessarily malicious.
Envious is very similar inmeaning to jealous.
However, jealous usually implies adeeper resentment,
perhaps because you feel that youdeserve the thing more than the other person,
or that it is unfair thatthey have it.
Envious is often followed bythe word ofand the person or thing that’s the object of envy,
as in I must admit that I’m envious of hertalent.
Example:
Other people’s perfectly curated social media feeds often causeus to feel envious, but we need to keep in mind that they don’t show the wholestory of what someone’s life is like—only the highlights.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
Jealous - Zealous
A Jealous person feels resentment orsuspicion
because of rivalry or competition of some sort:
“Sue was Jealous of her beautiful sister.
A Zealous person is active, diligent, devoted:
“He was the most admired, Zealous worker in the plant.
Jealous is pronounced “JEL-uhs” Zealousis sounded as “ZEL-uhs.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Zealous vs. Jealous
Zealous and jealousshare not just a rhyme, but an etymology.
Bothwords ultimately come from the Latin zelus“jealousy,”
and in the past their meaningswere somewhat closer to each other than they are today. In the 16thand 17th centuries, zealousoccasionally was used in biblical writing to refer to a quality ofapprehensiveness or jealousy of another. By the 18th century, however, it had completelydiverged in meaning from jealous,signifying “warmly engaged or ardent on behalf of someone or something.”
Today,zealous oftencarries a connotation of excessive feeling:
it typically means “fiercely partisan” or “uncompromisinglyenthusiastic.”
American Heritage®Dictionary of the English Language,
jeal′ous·ly adv.
jeal′ous·ness n.
Usage Note:
Traditionalusage holds that we are jealous when we fear losingsomething that is important to us and envious when we desire thatwhich someone else has. In this view, one might experience jealousy uponseeing one's spouse flirt with another (because of the fear of losing thespouse), while one might experience envy upon seeing a friend with anattractive date (because of one's desire to have an attractive date of one'sown). In common usage, this distinction is not always observed, and jealousyand jealous are often used in situations that involve envy. Our2015 survey shows that the distinction is alive and well: large majorities ofthe Usage Panel approved the traditional uses of jealousy
(She wasjealous when she saw her husband having dinner with another woman)
and envy(He was envious of the expensive sports car his neighbor bought),
while only aminority accepted the switched uses: 29 percent accepted envious for thesuspicious dinner, and 34 percent accepted jealous for the expensivesports car.
The last figuredoes mean, though, that a third of the Panelists accept jealous meaning"envious," and an even larger minority (43 percent) accept it whenthe entity being coveted is a person rather than an object,
as in Neverhaving been popular myself, I'm jealous of your many friends.
It is evidentfrom these results that many careful writers prefer to see the distinctionbetween the two words maintained, with jealous being reserved forsituations where one fears losing something and envious used forsituations where one wants what one does not have.
Merriam-WebsterDictionary
Usage Notes
Jealousvs. Envious
The wordsare often used as synonyms, but 'jealous' has more meanings
What to Know
While many people believe that jealous meansfearing someone will take what you have, and envious meansdesiring what someone else has,
historical usage shows that both mean "covetous"and are interchangeable when describing desiring someone else'spossessions.
However, when referring to romantic feelings,
only "jealous" can be used tomean "possessively suspicious," as in "a jealous husband."
Is there a difference between jealousand envious?
That depends on who you ask.
Some people have a view in this matter that is similar tothat expressed by the noted lexicographic scholar,
Homer Simpson: “I’m not jealous! I’m envious. Jealousy iswhen you worry someone will take what you have ... envy is wanting what someoneelse has.” Others, however, do not make this distinction, ordifferentiate between these two words in another fashion.
Let’s look at some of the ways that jealous and enviousoverlap.
Though 'jealous' and 'envious' may both mean"covetous," only 'jealous' may be used to mean"possessively suspicious."
WordOrigins
Both words are fairly old, having been in regularuse in English since the 13th century, and both words have accrued a numberof shades of meaning over the years. The fact that each of thesewords has numerous meanings makes it somewhat impractical to say “jealous means X, and envious means Y.”
But this matter of impracticality has proven to belittle deterrent to many people who have insisted that each one of these words doesindeed have a single true sense.
Here are some of the comments offered on these twowords, taken from usage guides published since the middle of the 20th century:
Onemight almost say that these two words are used as if they were interchangeable... The words are scarcely synonymous, however. Envymeans discontented longing for someone else’s advantages. Jealousymeans unpleasant suspicion, or apprehension of rivalship.
—Theodore M. Bernstein, The Careful Writer,1965
Thereare three different ways in which jealouscan be used. The most common is ... where the meaning is “fearful of losingattention.” Another broad sense is “possessive” or “protective” ... third usageis in the sense of “envious,” as of another person because of his or herbelongings, abilities, or achievements.
—William and Mary Morris, HarperDictionary of Contemporary Usage (2nd ed.), 1985
Jealousy is properly restricted to contextsinvolving emotional rivalry; envyis used more broadly of resentful contemplation of a more fortunate person.
—Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Modern American Usage(3rd ed.), 2009
One begins to see what a muddle questionsof usage may be when one contemplates the fact that all three of the abovebooks are making pronouncements on the words jealousy(and jealous) and envy, all ofwhich are in some way true, and all of which are also in some substantialway different from one another. There are indeed some semanticdistinctions that may be made between these words, but it should also benoted that many educated people use them interchangeably.
Envyis most often used to refer to a covetous feeling toward anotherperson’s attributes, possessions, or stature in life.
Many people use jealousto mean the same thing.
“I am envious of his good fortune”
could be changed to “I am jealous of his good fortune”
withoutsubstantially changing the meaning of the sentence for most people. So, jealous can be usedfor this sense of envious.
Jealousy and Romance
Jealous isalso often encountered adjectivally to refer to some unwelcomefeelings in a romantic vein, typically in which one harbors suspicion ofinfidelity or the possibility that one’s love will be stolen away. Animportant distinction here is that enviouswill not serve as a substitute for this use of jealous.
“He was always a jealous husband”
cannot be changed to “He was always an envious husband”
withoutsubstantially changing the meaning of the sentence.
So while jealous may be usedto mean both “covetous” and “possessively suspicious”, envious is onlycomfortable in the first of those two senses.
Whichof course raises the following question:
given that jealous has moremeanings than envious,
does the word envious feelenvious or jealous (or both) of its synonym’s greater semantic breadth?
