When your partner tells you their ex, whom they haven’t seen in years, is coming to town, you graciously offer to host them for dinner. After hours of witnessing their obvious chemistry on full display, you start to feel a little ill at ease—which you’d most likely describe as jealousy, rather than envy.
当你的爱人告诉你,TA多年未见的前任会来你们所在的城市时,你好心为他们安排饭局。但是,当亲眼目睹TA和前任之间明显的亲密互动后,你会开始感到有点坐立不安-这种不自在你很可能会形容为Jealousy(妒忌),而不是envy(羡慕)。

As Merriam-Webster explains, that’s because we usually use the word jealousy to describe the worry that someone is coming for what’s yours. Envy, on the other hand, refers to the opposite scenario: when you want something that belongs to someone else.
根据《韦氏词典》的解释,这是因为我们通常会用jealousy一词来表示担心有人会拿走属于自己的东西。而Envy,则表示相反的场景:当你想拥有属于别人的东西时,你会用envy。
But it’s not quite that simple. For one thing, jealousy can also function as a synonym for envy. If your neighbor owns an extremely valuable Beanie Baby collection, and you famously love Beanie Babies, you might say you’re envious of your neighbor—or, you might say you’re jealous.
但是,事情并非这么简单。一方面,jealousy也可以作为envy的同义词。如果你的邻居拥有非常珍贵的“豆豆娃”藏品,而你是出了名地喜欢豆豆娃,那么,你也许会说,你特别羡慕(envy)你的邻居-或者你也许也会说,自己有些嫉妒(jealous)。
Furthermore, as Psychology Today points out, jealousy is often accompanied by envy. Or rather, it’s envy that sometimes causes you to become jealous. Say, for example, your recently engaged best friend asks you to be her maid-of-honor. Over the course of several wedding-related events, you realize that your best friend seems to be favoring one of her bridesmaids—an exceptionally glamorous, wealthy, thoughtful, and seemingly perfect newer friend—over you. So you start to feel jealous. The reason for your jealousy, however, is because you envy this woman’s qualities, and you envy the attention she’s getting from your best friend.
此外,如《今日心理学》所指出的,jealousy与envy相伴而生。或者更准确地说,是envy让你变得jealous。比如,你刚刚订婚的最好的朋友请你作她的伴娘。但是,在婚礼活动期间,你会发现,和你相比,你最好的朋友似乎更喜欢伴娘中的另外一个-一个特别有魅力、有钱、有思想并似乎完美的新朋友。那么,你开始感觉到妒忌(jealous)。之所以会有jealous的感觉是因为你羡慕(envy)她身上的特质以及她从你的好友那里所获得的关注。
In other words, jealousy is more readily associated with territoriality, rivalry, and/or betrayal than envy is. But if you unpack the situation a little, you might find envy there, too.
换言之,jealousy与地域性、竞争性和/或背叛的联系比envy更紧密。但是,如果你再稍微了解一下情况,你也许也会发现这其中也有envy的成分。
原文:Mental Floss
翻译&编辑:上海译锐翻译
上海译锐翻译成立于2011年,是一家有着10年以上翻译经验的专业翻译公司。从成立至今,我们已经为数百家客户提供过优质的翻译服务。无论还合同、公司宣传资料还是培训手册或个人文件,我们都能够为您提供满意专业的翻译服务。
如需咨询翻译业务,请添加客服微信或直接发送邮件至daisy.xu@easytranslation.com.cn。我们会第一时间与您联系。
