I Want It And I Want It Now

[Violet just sent a link to a summary of Paul Brians's Common Errors of English Usage. You know I'm getting a time-wasting kick out of his list today, and have learned of one error (so far) that I've been making for years.]

ENVIOUSNESS/JEALOUSY
Although these are often treated as synonyms, there is a difference. You are envious of what others have that you lack. Jealousy, on the other hand, involves wanting to hold on to what you do have. You can be jealous of your boyfriend’s attraction to other women, but you’re envious of your boyfriend’s CD collection.

[Now, I haven't treated the two words as synonyms for a long time, but I've been under the impression that envy means coveting something somebody else has but not wanting to deprive them of it, while jealousy means wanting to have whatever it is instead of the other person. I would have used "jealous" in the way Brians does as well, as another sense of the word, I guess. I think I invented my distinction between what I now see as two kinds of envy, and I still think it's a valid one to draw when discussing covetousness.]

[Learning, growing, changing...]

Previously Next

[Later: I'm not sure if there's a connection, but a link from Waiting For Dorothy tells me that:

You scored as Postmodernist. Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis. Postmodernist 88% Existentialist 81% Idealist 75% Materialist 69% Cultural Creative 63% Modernist 50% Fundamentalist 19% Romanticist 19% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com