Envious means wishing painfully that you had what another person has. Envious of her success, an envious glance, make them envious.
The pain is the distinguishing part: envy hurts where admiration does not. It takes of — envious of somebody. Note the standard distinction from jealous, which properly means fearing to lose what you have, though the two are used interchangeably in speech. Note also invidious, which is the same Latin word borrowed directly and now means likely to cause resentment.
1adjectiveenviousWishing painfully that you had what another has.
“She was envious of her sister's long, glossy hair.”
envious is a quality of envy.
Latin invidiosus comes from invidere, to look upon with ill will — in plus videre, to see. Envy is literally looking at somebody the wrong way.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyd-
Latin
invidiōsus
Old French
envieus
Anglo-Norman
envious
Middle English
envious
English, today
envious
From Middle English envious, from Anglo-Norman envious, from Old French envieus, envious (modern French envieux), from Latin invidiōsus; more at envy. a doublet of invidious, borrowed directly from Latin. Displaced native Old English æfestiġ.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA