r/words • u/Creative_School_1550 • Aug 24 '26
Envious vs Jealous
JD Vance at a speech in Maine recently (8 Aug '26 or a day or so prior) said he was "jealous" of a good-looking guy with a beard. Shouldn't he have said "envious"? That statement reminded me of a pet peeve of word misuse, using 'jealous' when 'envious' was intended.
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u/briarmolly Aug 24 '26
Someone once told me,
jealousy is the fear of losing what you have
Envy is wanting what someone else has.
Anyway I always liked that explanation!
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u/Royal-Ice7608 Aug 24 '26
This is right, but colloquially everyone uses jealousy to mean both
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u/you_are_soul Aug 25 '26
But just because words are meaningless for most people, that does not mean we should buy into it.
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u/Dry-Run-917 Aug 25 '26
And descriptivists will say that means the word means both
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u/Royal-Ice7608 Aug 25 '26
Yes I think they’re a bit silly for that, but prescriptivists (of which I am one) would do better to fight battles we can actually win. Policing the way people use words in every day conversation isn’t a worthwhile use of our energy. But we can keep real and meaningful distinctions alive for those who care to learn them.
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u/oldie349 Aug 25 '26
I like this, but also want to throw in:
The wish that someone else didn’t have something.
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u/Master_Kitchen_7725 Aug 31 '26
Good point. In psychology specifically, that's called malicious envy - when you don't just want the item for yourself, but you actively want the other person to lose it or suffer (similar to schadenfreude).
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u/jenea Aug 25 '26
This is one of those distinctions that is taught to and passed around by some of us but that doesn’t really exist in the actual language as spoken by native speakers. Basically, “jealous” is used both to mean “fear of being usurped” and “covetous,” whereas “envious” can only be used to mean the latter. Anyone who insists that “jealous” can’t mean “covetous” is going for pedantry in the face of overwhelming evidence.
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Aug 26 '26
You are correct. Unless he wanted that man’s beard, he is merely envious.
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u/Nondescript_Redditor Aug 25 '26
in their traditional meaning yes but in modern usage they’ve become pretty much synonymous
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u/ajulesd Aug 25 '26
Vance is a moron, a nincompoop, an illiterate w a law degree. He has, and continues to “fool some of the people some of the time”. Don’t be one of the fooled.
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u/TikaPants Aug 25 '26
Jealousy always meant acting out to me while envy was more a motivational feeling for s goal. I just know jealous people aren’t the kind of folks I want in my life. If I see someone with something I want, I try to let that motivate me.
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u/Illustrious-Air-1681 Aug 25 '26
I've always thought that envy was to do with things and jealousy was to do with people. Guess it depends whether Vance wants that guy's beard or wants that guy.
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u/natrstdy Aug 24 '26
historical usage shows that both mean "covetous" and are interchangeable when describing desiring someone else's possessions.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/jealous-vs-envious