The word "envy" came from the Latin word "invidere". Here "In" means "contrary", and "videre" means "to look". .
Envy is a feeling we will have towards someone when we wish that we had his qualities, luck, or possessions.
For example, old men envy younger men; those who have spent much envy those who have spent little on the same thing; and men who have not got a thing, or not got it yet, envy those who have got it quickly.
Ambitious men are more envious than those who are not. If a person is ambitious to make a fortune, he will be envious on this particular point. Hence he will envy those who became rich quickly. Similarly, small-minded men are envious, for everything seems great to them-fame, wisdom, gift, or love. They envy it not because of their demands for it, but because the other people have it.
And it is also clear what kind of people we envy. Most of the time, we feel envious towards our equals or competitors. In another word, we envy those who are near us in time, place, age, or reputation. We do not compete with men who lived a hundred centuries ago, or those not yet born, or the dead, or those whom we consider to be far below us or far above us. But we do compete with our rivals in sport or in love, and generally with those who are after the same things. And it is therefore these people we envy more than others.
Sometimes we will confuse envy with jealousy, yet these two terms are quite different from each other.
Jealousy is a feeling one feels when one hates the lucky person who has received something that should have been given to oneself. He is not satisfied with the fact that others have got what he ought to have, or have got what he did have once. It is often used to describe a love relationship. A wife may become jealous when she sees that her husband shows admiration for another beautiful woman. She feels justified in doing this because she considers it her only right to have her husband's love.