Other forms: envied, envies
Envy is the pain of wanting what somebody else has. Green with envy, the envy of her friends, he could not hide his envy.
It is close to jealousy and the two are not the same: envy is wanting what another person has, jealousy is fearing you will lose what you have. In practice English speakers use them interchangeably, and the distinction is worth knowing anyway because careful writers keep it. The verb is envy somebody something — I envy you your holiday — which is an unusual double-object pattern. Note the envy of, meaning admired by, which is entirely positive.
1nounenvyThe unhappy feeling of wanting what somebody else has.
“There was more envy than admiration in the room.”
synonyms: jealousy, covetousness
2verbwishTo wish you had what somebody else has.
“I envy anybody who can sleep on a plane.”
3nounwidelySomebody or something widely admired.
“The garden is the envy of the whole street.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
envy is a feeling of wanting.
Latin invidia comes from invidere, to look upon with malice — in-, upon, plus videre, to see. Envy is a way of looking at somebody, and the same root gives view, evident and vision.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyd-
Middle English
envie
English, today
envy
Built from
From Middle English envie. 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”). a doublet of envie. Cognate to Proto-Slavic zavistь (“envy”). Displaced native Old English æfest and Old English nīþ.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA