envious

From Middle English envious, from Anglo-Norman envious, from Old French envieus, envious (modern French envieux), from Latin invidiōsus; more at envy. Doublet of invidious, borrowed directly from Latin. Displaced native Old English æfestiġ.

• enPR: ĕnʹvēəs, IPA^(key): /ˈɛnviːəs/

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envious (comparative more envious, superlative most envious)

1. Feeling or exhibiting envy; jealously desiring the excellence or good fortune of another; maliciously grudging

   an envious man, disposition, or attack; envious tongues

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 37:1:

     Fret not thy ſelfe becauſe of euill doers, neither bee thou enuious againſt the workers of iniquitie.

   • 1827, [John Keble], The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC:

     My soul is envious of mine eye.

2. Excessively careful; cautious.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:

     for no man was ever so amorous, as to love a toad; none so envious, as to repine at the condition of the miserable

3. (obsolete) Malignant; mischievous; spiteful.
   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC; Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis: […], 4th edition, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co. […], 1896, →OCLC:

     Each envious brier his weary legs doth scratch.

     The spelling has been modernized.

4. (obsolete, poetic) Inspiring envy.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 39:

     He to him leapt, and that same envious gage / Of victors glory from him snatcht away.

• (excessively cautious): overcautious

• jealous

• niveous, veinous

• envius, enwius, envyose, envyous, envyus

Borrowed from Middle French envieux, from Latin invidiōsus; equivalent to envie +‎ -ous.

• IPA^(key): /ɛnviˈuːs/, /ˈɛnvius/

envious (plural and weak singular enviouse)

1. aggressive, malignant
2. envious (having envy)
3. (rare) competitive

• English: envious

• “enviǒus, adj.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “enviǒus, adj.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• enviös, envieus

From Latin invidiōsus.

envious m (oblique and nominative feminine singular enviouse)

1. envious; jealous
   • c. 1170, Wace, Le Roman de Rou:

     Mez mult part fu cruel e mult fu envious

     But [he] was very cruel and very jealous

• French: envieux
• Norman: envieux
• → Middle English: envious, envius, enwius, envyose, envyous, envyus
  • English: envious