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#Post#: 19177--------------------------------------------------
Jealous and envious in your language
By: Nikola Date: August 18, 2019, 8:07 am
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The word jealous has several meanings in English. I used to only
associate it with showing suspicion in a relationship, until I
heard someone say something like "you're going to Greece for two
weeks? I'm so jealous." It sounded like a completely irrelevant
piece of information to me, as though they were saying "by the
way, I don't trust my husband at all". I know now that jealous
can also mean envious and I just found out it can also mean
fiercely protective of one's rights or possessions.
In Czech, there isn't a word that would cover any combination of
these meanings. We have a separate word for jealous in a
relationship (žárlivý) and jealous as in wanting the thing
someone else has (závistivý). We would, however, use the related
verbs (žárlit, závidět) rather than the adjectives in most
contexts. I'm struggling to think of one single word that would
convey the meaning protective.
How do languages you know handle this? Is there one word for for
both jealous and envious?
#Post#: 19186--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jealous and envious in your language
By: SHL Date: August 18, 2019, 1:46 pm
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[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1340.msg19177#msg19177
date=1566133668]
The word jealous has several meanings in English. I used to only
associate it with showing suspicion in a relationship, until I
heard someone say something like "you're going to Greece for two
weeks? I'm so jealous." It sounded like a completely irrelevant
piece of information to me, as though they were saying "by the
way, I don't trust my husband at all". I know now that jealous
can also mean envious and I just found out it can also mean
fiercely protective of one's rights or possessions.
In Czech, there isn't a word that would cover any combination of
these meanings. We have a separate word for jealous in a
relationship (žárlivý) and jealous as in wanting the thing
someone else has (závistivý). We would, however, use the related
verbs (žárlit, závidět) rather than the adjectives in most
contexts. I'm struggling to think of one single word that would
convey the meaning protective.
How do languages you know handle this? Is there one word for for
both jealous and envious?
[/quote]
Yes, I think that English is pretty loose about treating jealous
and envious as just about synonymous a lot of the time.
In German there is Neid(isch): envy, defined in Duden as
„Empfindung, Haltung, bei der jmd. einem andern dessen Besitz
od. Erfolg nicht gönnt u. selbst haben möchte“ the feeling or
attitude with which someone would begrudge another some
possession or success and would like to have it for himself.
And Eifersucht(eifersüchtig): (jealously)
starke, übersteigerte Furcht, jmds. Liebe od. einen Vorteil mit
einem anderen teilen zu müssen od. an einen anderen zu
verlieren: the strong and overwhelming fear of losing or having
to share the love or someone or an advantage with someone else.
I‘ve always thought of jealousy as having to do with people and
envy just characteristics or possessions, usually of a nature
that someone can never have.
Envy is considered the most destructive of human emotions
because it generates a sort of melancholy hate. Where jealously
is more the desire to have what another has, but it doesn’t
exclude the possibility of that person eventually having it.
So, a 60 year old can be envious of a 30 year old because he can
never be 30 again. But the 60 year old can be jealous of the
neighbor‘s pretty wife (doesn’t mean he can never have one
himself). That’s why envy is so much more destructive than
jealously.
#Post#: 19205--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jealous and envious in your language
By: Susan Date: August 18, 2019, 10:51 pm
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In Spanish, my teachers seem to have different opinions on this
one. In Spanish jealousy is ¨celos¨ and envy is ¨envidia.¨ Some
of my teachers have told me ¨celos¨ always refers to insecurity
in a sexual or romantic relationship. Other teachers (from the
same country) have disagreed with that definition and told me it
is similar to English, that ¨celos¨ can be wanting what some
other person has. Since some people are going to take it in a
sexual way, my own policy is to only use ¨celos¨ in regard to
talking about love relationships, whereas in English, Jealous
could refer to insecurity of the relationship or to just
desiring what someone else has or is able to do.
This site seems to have a logical comparison of the two, but of
course it is in Spanish.
HTML https://difiere.com/diferencia-entre-celos-envidia/#targetText=Tanto%20la%20envidia%20como%20los,%E2%80%9Cnegativas%E2%80%9D%20o%20no%20constructivas.&targetText=En%20cuanto%20a%20las%20diferencias,de%20perder%20algo%20o%20a%20alguien.<br
/> To basically translate it loosely, it says that the principal
differences is that envy refers to wanting what another person
has, while jealousy is the emotion related to the fear of losing
something or someone. I suspect that that is a valid
distinction from someone knowledgeable, but since so many
Latinos do not seem to see it that way, I am just careful to
differentiate and only use ¨celos¨ about the fear of losing a
relationship (or being cheated on.)
#Post#: 19211--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jealous and envious in your language
By: Nikola Date: August 19, 2019, 3:39 am
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Thank you, Steven and Susan. I wasn't aware of the nuance in
meaning between envy and jealousy and I wasn't aware the noun
jealousy was still applicable when talking about wanting
something. I thought jealousy only applied to love
relationships. I find it really interesting that the similarity
in meaning is regionally determined in Spanish and even two
people in the same country might have different opinions. I
think there is a general theme to the word "jealous" in English,
which is the desire to own something and the fear of losing it.
I think that once we look into the concepts that words with
multiple meanings represent, we can often find a connection
between the individual meanings.
I'm still hoping to find out how it is in other languages.
#Post#: 19352--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jealous and envious in your language
By: MartinSR Date: September 7, 2019, 6:53 am
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In Polish we use "zazdrość" (noun),
"zazdrościć" (verb) and "zazdrosny" (adjective) in
both meanings - both about the possession and relationships, in
every flavour from being overprotective to family and
possessions to the potentially destructive feelings.
"Zawiść" is always a negative and destructive feeling
about the wellness, wealth and people we can't have. We don't
use its verb form, the adjective is "zawistny".
"Żarliwość" (adjective "żarliwy", no verb in
use) is usually positive. It goes with the names of feelings and
other descriptions of a personality. It means that the person
puts all of his forces, all of himself into this feeling. The
meaning is probably close to "passionate". We can say it e.g.
about love, faith, defence of animals' rights, ...
#Post#: 19353--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jealous and envious in your language
By: Nikola Date: September 7, 2019, 12:17 pm
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Thank you, Martin. I would never expect the word
"żarliwość" to have a positive meaning.
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