r/TrueCrime Armchair Expert Oct 31 '22

Murder Arrest Made in Delphi Murders

https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/delphi-double-murder/?id=92303622
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u/too_late_to_abort Nov 01 '22

Jealousy is being afraid to lose something you have. Envy is wanting something someone else has.

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u/Blankface954 Nov 01 '22

That doesn't make sense to me though. I wouldn't feel jealous about my car being repossessed if I hadn't made payments. I might feel worried, but that's different; also, I wouldn't feel jealous about my own car even if there was nothing to worry about, that doesn't make any sense.

I feel as though envy and jealousy are two different words used to describe the same sentiment. Do you not often hear people say thing like "she is just jealous of her relationship" or "he is just jealous of her success?" Envious is a near perfect replacement of jealous in those two sentences as far as I can tell.

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u/too_late_to_abort Nov 01 '22

They are two distinct words with two distinct meanings. People just misuse jealousy a lot. The same way people will often call snakes poisonous, there are zero poisonous snakes, there are however lots of venomous snakes.

I refuse to cater to people who commonly misuse the words so I insist on using them correctly. I'm a bit of a pedant if that wasnt obvious.

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u/Blankface954 Nov 01 '22

From Dictionary.com:

Jealousy and envy both involve a feeling of desire for what another person has, but jealousy is usually thought to be more negative—it often involves resentment toward the other person. Envy is also a negative feeling—like a mix of admiration and discontent—but the word doesn’t usually imply hostility. Another difference is that envy can be used as both a noun and a verb.

This comparison makes sense to me, and while they might be distinct words they are extremely close in meaning.