DISTINCTIONS OF ENVY AND JEALOUSY
What is the difference between envy and jealousy? This can be particularly difficult for American English speakers. In American English, we often use the term “jealous” to refer to feelings of both envy and jealousy. In an article by Stepanova and Coley, where they examined the linguistic differences of these two terms in both English and Russian, they pointed out that American English speakers will express their emotions of envy with the word or term of being jealous. The example Stepanova and Coley use was that of expressing envy over another’s purchase of a new car: “You have a nice car. I’m so jealous!” (Stepanova & Coley, pg. 5). In contrast, in Russian, the expression would utilize the Russian equivalent for envy rather than the equivalent for jealousy.
Although in American English, the expression of being jealous can refer to a feeling of either jealousy or envy, when we define these two terms we can determine two distinct differences for these emotions. First, the feeling of jealousy is an emotion which encompasses something that the individual has while the feeling of envy is an emotion which encompasses something that the individual does not have and wants. Second, the feeling of jealousy typically encompasses a relationship while the feeling of envy typically encompasses an object (Aanderson, 1). The second of these two distinctions is typical, though not a necessity in defining these terms.
The primary distinction is truly that of having and not having... More to come!
