Jealousy vs. Envy: What’s the Difference?

同样表示“嫉妒” jealousy和envy 到底有啥不同？

When your partner tells you their ex, whom they haven’t seen in years, is coming to town, you graciously offer to host them for dinner. After hours of witnessing their obvious chemistry on full display, you start to feel a little ill at ease—which you’d most likely describe as jealousy, rather than envy.

如果你的伴侣告诉你，TA多年不见的前任途经此地，于是你好心组了个饭局。在连续几小时目睹他俩火花四射的化学反应后，你开始感到有点不安，你会将这种心理称为jealousy而不是envy。

As Merriam-Webster explains, that’s because we usually use the word jealousy to describe the worry that someone is coming for what’s yours. Envy, on the other hand, refers to the opposite scenario: when you want something that belongs to someone else.

根据《韦氏词典》的解释，这是因为我们通常会用jealousy这个词来描述担心某人抢走你的东西。而envy的意思正相反：你想要得到属于别人的东西。

But it’s not quite that simple. For one thing, jealousy can also function as a synonym for envy. If your neighbor owns an extremely valuable Beanie Baby collection, and you famously love Beanie Babies, you might say you’re envious of your neighbor—or, you might say you’re jealous.

但是具体来说又没有这么简单。一方面，jealousy可以作为envy的同义词。如果你的邻居拥有一套特别珍贵的豆豆娃藏品，而你是出了名的喜欢豆豆娃，你可以说你对邻居感到envious，也可以说感到jealous。

Furthermore, as Psychology Today points out, jealousy is often accompanied by envy. Or rather, it’s envy that sometimes causes you to become jealous. Say, for example, your recently engaged best friend asks you to be her maid-of-honor. Over the course of several wedding-related events, you realize that your best friend seems to be favoring one of her bridesmaids—an exceptionally glamorous, wealthy, thoughtful, and seemingly perfect newer friend—over you. So you start to feel jealous. The reason for your jealousy, however, is because you envy this woman’s qualities, and you envy the attention she’s getting from your best friend.

另一方面，正如《今日心理学》杂志指出的，jealousy和envy往往相伴而生。或者可以说，envy有时候会让你产生jealousy。举个例子，你刚订婚的好友请你当她的伴娘。在处理婚礼相关事务的过程中，你意识到你的好友似乎更喜欢另一个伴娘，一个魅力四射、富有又体贴、貌似很完美的新朋友。于是你开始感到jealousy。你感到jealousy是因为你对这个女人拥有的特质，以及她从你的好友那里获得的关注感到envy。

In other words, jealousy is more readily associated with territoriality, rivalry, and/or betrayal than envy is. But if you unpack the situation a little, you might find envy there, too.

换言之，jealousy和领土意识、竞争、背叛的关联度比envy更高。不过如果你稍微了解一下情况，你会发现其中也有envy的成分。