Where does “envious” come from?
Envious derives from Middle English envious, from Anglo-Norman envious, from Latin invidiosus, literally "full of seeing into," combining in- "into" and videre "to see" with the adjective-forming suffix -osus.
envious (English): Feeling or exhibiting envy; jealously desiring...
Definitions
- Feeling or exhibiting envy; jealously desiring...
Ancestry of “envious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | envious | aggressive, malignant |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | envious | envious; jealous |
| 3 | Old French | envieus | — |
| 4 | Latin | invidiōsus | envious, invidious, hostile |
| 5 | Latin | invidia | envy, grudge, jealousy, prejudice, spite; an... |
| 6 | Latin | invidus | envious; hostile, inimical |
| 7 | Latin | invideo | I look askance or maliciously at, cast an evil... |
| 8 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 9 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 10 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |