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Where did this idea come from and why is it so often claimed? Never in my life have I heard someone use 'jealousy' in that context, yet it seems to be widely ac
by to1y 6y ago
Where did this idea come from and why is it so often claimed? Never in my life have I heard someone use 'jealousy' in that context, yet it seems to be widely accepted fact on the internet.
- ayyy 6y agoWhen I google "define jealous" and "define envy", I read it the same as Homer. I think it's one of those pre-internet "facts" people learned in school. If you're not aware, "literally" also now literally means "figuratively". It's memes all the way down.
- spanhandler 6y agoTo me that meaning checks out, but is a bit archaic. It’s how you might see it used in an older translation of the Bible, or a 19th century translation of the Greek tragedians, or maybe Tolkien, or something like that. Modern, and especially colloquial, usage tends to be as a synonym of “envious”, so far as I know. “I’m jealous of her hair”. “His Instagram posts of his beach house make me so jealous”. “Stop mocking her car—you’re just jealous”. I don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen the older meaning intended in colloquial speech or all but the stuffiest of writing in the last 20+ years. So, as is typical, two useful words have become one word through misuse.