Jealousy and envy are not synonymous.

[Habbibu]

They really aren't. They're verging on being opposite, in fact. I suspect that they will become synonymous, actually, but while I can rant about it, I will.

It is a good point and I am glad you had the enhusiasm to mention it. In fact I am envious of your jealous protection of the meaning of 'jealous'.

I always think of envy being a kinder emotion than jealousy. As in, if I was jealous of something somebody else had and I couldn't have, I would be pleased if it was taken away from them. In the case of envy I wouldn't mind too much if they had it, but wished I could have it too. If that makes sense.

No, that's my point, chunky - jealous refers to wanting to keep what you already have - so a jealous husband doesn't want anyone else near his wife. An envious husband may want (or covet) as thready so eloquently put it, someone else's wife. He could, I suppose be envious AND jealous, but they relate to two different things.

I see. My dictionary doesn't help. jealousy - 1. a jealous attitude or disposition 2. close vigilance!

I suspect that jealousy is losing much of its original meaning, and will come to be synonymous with envy soon. But I don't have to like it.

Why not stop the rot by petioning MN for a separate, very distinct, [jealous] emoticon?

It should be a blend of the appearence od [ency] and [anger] -- not that jealously is lierally such a blend, but I suspect that envy and anger are often present in a jealous person.

Jealousy, btw, is the emotion I feel scaredest of in any potential dp. It is also (hurrah!!) a vice I don't have, whereas I am quite prone to envy.

"appearence od [ency]"

--pile-up of typos.

should be

appearance of

Yes - I was thinking about this while reading the thread where the rich people who didn't want to pay so much tax were accusing the less rich (who wanted them to pay more) of being jealous of their wealth. "Au contraire" I longed to write "you are jealous of your own wealth". But I didn't feel it would play well in that arena.

I tend to much more jealous than I am envious. Neither is pretty. But I realise that my jealousy is irrational and unfounded, so it's pretty harmless and doesn't last - it's when that's not realised that it becomes very dangerous.

Wish you had, Iorek. It would have been marvellous: "so THAT's what you from an expensive education, huh?"

Thready, I may be the only MNer who has never ever used emoticons.

Shouldn't the jealous emoticon be someone feasting on their own vomit?

No, nor me neither. I feel that like the exclamation mark they are de trop. One should be able to express oneself without the need for pictorial representation. I am jealous of my ability in that regard and envy not those who make free with faces.

Wouldn't that be the severe-personality-and-eating-disorder-and-oh-yes-just-a-bit-jealous-too emoticon?

And the envy-icon could be someone lusting after soneone else's vomit.

hully, do you think someone may be able to remove said ability?

I do use exclamation marks, but hate their over-use. I use ellipses like they're going out of fashion, mind...

'I am a jealous God' doesn't make any sense if you don't retain the distinction (given that he ruled against covetousness, which is not-quite-synonymous with envy but similar.

Can you imagine... 'ooh, I'm so jealous, my DS didn't get a private education'

Envious, starlight. If you were Michael Palin, and he wouldn't let some woman and her 2 dcs join him on his trip, you would be jealously guarding your privilege.

Indeed, Grimma. "I am an envious God" really doesn't work.

They try to frequently.

Starlight - you are envious.

Ellipses are quite lovely. I am also over partial to the semi colon.

Yes. They are not nice unless very well used. I used them a lot when I first came to mumsnet in a vain attempt to fit in, but found myself more and more disgusting as I did so.

I often feel frustrated in my need to express great amusement though, and sometimes resort to a grin. I'm not happy about it though.