Etymograph

English

envy

Envy comes from Middle English envie ‘envy, grudge’, from Latin invidere ‘to look at with malice’, and ultimately from vīdērunt.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvīdēruntas videre‘to look, see’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinvidere‘to look at with malice’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinvidia
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400envie
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500envie‘envy, grudge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1485envy

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history not traced here.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvīdēruntas videre‘to look, see’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinvidere‘to look at with malice’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinvidia
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400envie
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500envie‘envy, grudge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1485envy

Earliest quotation: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, lij: “Syre said laūcelot vnto Arthur by this crye that…”

Linked words

through Latin vīdērunt ‘to look, see’

survey, visual, visible, visage, 1 more

through Latin invidia

invidious, 1 more

Today it means

noun Resentful desire of something possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin vīdērunt / envy

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