Whats the difference between jealousy and envy?

[sweetheart1311]

English is my second language so the way I learned the two words is:
'Jealousy' pretty much just refers to lovers. As in 'you are paying attention to him so I'm jealous'.
'Envy' is everything else. I'm envious of your looks, your car, your life...
Needless to say I hate the expression 'They're just jealous' (for example you win the lottery and people start hating you).

[Kracer]

Both words are centered on 'ego'.

Jealous may involve a fear of losing possession of something to someone else. "He jealously guarded his jar of pennies." " He was jealous of the attention paid to his wife by a stranger."

Envy is a desire to obtain what someone else has in their possession.
Envy doesn't seem to involve 'fear' as it is more a desire to posses.
"He envied john's car"


He envied the power that would come with an appointment to the position of company president and was very jealous of his competitor being the most favored candidate.

Here he might lose the opportunity to be appointed.

Envy seems more of a static emotion or condition while jealousy is more active or dynamic.

You might envy someone's possession and be jealous of another human being. So envy might generally involve material things and jealousy references a more psychological origin.

Depending on the situation, jealous and envy may be interchangable or demand the use of one or the other.

Then there is coveting!

[Bunjee]

All of the above. Jealousy attaches to spite, directed at another person. Envy is directed only at the coveted object. Different targets.

[bellakin123]

I saw this on a program on the History Channel. It was about the 7 Deadly Sins. Envy is the desire for other people's things and not being happy for the people who have those things. They resent not having that object. It's similar to greed but not exactly. Envy is not destructive. Jealousy is destructive and is about insecurity. There's also a malicious desire to harm the person that one is jealous of. It's also often about losing a loved one (romantically).