jealousy
(ˈdʒɛləsɪ)
Forms: α. 3–5 gelusie, -usye, 4–6 gelosie, -osy(e, -ousie, -ousy(e, 5 -owsye, -ozye, 6 (gelacy) gealosie, -osy(e, -ousy. β. 4 ielesye, 4–7 ielousie, -ousy, (4–5 -ousye, 5 -acy, 5–6 -osy(e, 6 -usy, -owsy); 6–7 iealousie, -sye, 7– jealousy. γ. 4 ialusy(e, 4–6 -ousie, -ousye, 6 -owsye. δ. 5 iolysye.
[a. OF. gelosie, jalousie (= Pr. and It. gelosia), f. gelos jealous: see -y.]
The quality of being jealous.
† 1. Zeal or vehemence of feeling against some person or thing; anger, wrath, indignation. Obs.
| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 25 Þe gelousy [1382 Wyclif Wisd. v. 18 ielouste] of Him schal tak armor, & arme þe crature to venge Him on þe wickid. 1535 Coverdale Deut. xxix. 20 His wrath and gelousy shall smoke ouer soch a man. 1611 Bible Ps. lxxix. 5 How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry, for euer? shall thy ielousie burne like fire? 1649 Bp. Reynolds Hosea i. 32 The Lord shewing the jealousie of his Justice. |
† 2. Zeal or vehemence of feeling in favour of a person or thing; devotion, eagerness, anxiety to serve. Obs.
| 1436 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 165 He hadde a manere gelozye To hys marchauntes, and lowede hem hartelye. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 170 b/1 The Iuge wyste not who had wrong for the ialousye of Iustyse that he had. Ibid. 442/1 The swete percepcyon of thy precious body whiche by Ialousye of loue I doo take be to me eschewyng of dampnacion. 1565 T. Stapleton Fortr. Faith 20 This shall the gelousy of the Lorde of Hostes bringe to passe. |
3. Solicitude or anxiety for the preservation or well-being of something; vigilance in guarding a possession from loss or damage.
| 1387–8, 1526 [see jealous a. 3]. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 109 A citie holden by the Genoise, with great iealousie, by reason of the neighborhoode of the great Duke. 1639 T. Brugis tr. Camus' Mor. Relat. 160 Of a love intirely pure, and..with a holy jealousie of the protection of her integrity. 1738 Bolingbroke On Parties Ded. 23 There is a plain and real Difference between Jealousy and Distrust... Men may be jealous, on Account of their Liberties, and I think They ought to be so, even when They have no immediate Distrust that the Persons, who govern, design to invade them. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Aristocracy Wks. (Bohn) II. 83 The jealousy of every class to guard itself, is a testimony to the reality they have found in life. |
4. The state of mind arising from the suspicion, apprehension, or knowledge of rivalry: a. in love, etc.: Fear of being supplanted in the affection, or distrust of the fidelity, of a beloved person, esp. a wife, husband, or lover.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1896 But where þe wyfe haþ gelousye, Þer beþ wrdys grete and hye. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Laurentius 698 Þe feynd..gert hyme fal In Ialusy, Venand his wyf had mysdone Vith a ȝunge knycht. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 441 The fyr of Ialousie [v.rr. ielusye, gelousie, gelesie, Ielousie, -sye] vp sterte With Inne his brest and hente him by the herte. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 349 For contempte of vice of iolysye. 1535 Coverdale Song Sol. viii. 6 Loue is mightie as the death, and gelousy as the hell. 1611 Bible Num. v. 29 This is the law of ielousies, when a wife goeth aside to another in stead of her husband. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 170 ¶2 Jealousy is that Pain which a Man feels from the Apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the Person whom he entirely loves. 1871 Dale Ten Commandm. ii. 63 Jealousy is but the anger and pain of injured and insulted Love. |
b. in respect of success or advantage: Fear of losing some good through the rivalry of another; resentment or ill-will towards another on account of advantage or superiority, possible or actual, on his part; envy, grudge.
| c 1425 Lydgate Assembly of Gods 640 Malyce, Frowardnes, Gret Ielacy. 1470–85 Malory Arthur viii. xiii, There befelle a Ialousye..betwyxe kynge Marke and sir Tristram, for they loued bothe one lady. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Rom. xi. 30 To folowe your godlynes, though it be but euen for enuie and malice, as the propertie of them is to be gyuen to a ialowsye. 1650 Sir R. Stapylton Strada's Low C. Warres vi. 21 Lest this warrelike Preparation might beget a Ielousy in the minds of princes, his Majesty satisfied them by his Ambassadours. a 1715 Burnet Own Time ii. (1724) I. 208 This drew a jealousy on me from the Bishops. 1836 W. Irving Astoria I. 90 There were feuds between the partners themselves, occasioned..by jealousy of rank. 1870 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. iv. 163 We see traces of strong local diversities, sometimes rising into local jealousies. 1879 McCarthy Own Times II. xxv. 232 [Turkey] reckoning on the mutual jealousies of the cabinets. |
c. In biblical language, attributed to God: see jealous a. 4 c, and quot. 1860 below.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 90 Ich am gelus of þe, Syon, mi leofmon, mid muche gelusie. 1611 Bible Deut. xxxii. 16 They prouoked him to iealousie with strange gods. 1622 Donne Serm. i. 3 a, Iealous of his iealousie, He will not have his iealousie despised nor forgotten. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 102 ‘Jealousy’ is used..in the O.T. of that attribute in God, whereby He does not endure the love of His creatures to be transferred from Him, or divided with Him. Ibid. 373 God's jealousy is twofold. It is an intense love, not bearing imperfections or unfaithfulness in that which It loves, and so chastening it; or not bearing the ill-dealings of those who would injure what It loves, and so destroying them. |
5. Suspicion; apprehension of evil; mistrust. Now dial. † to have in jealousy: to be suspicious of, suspect, mistrust (obs.).
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 722 (Thisbe) Maydenys been I-kept for gelosye Ful streyte lyst they dedyn sum folye. 1523 Pace Let. to Hen. VIII in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) I. App. xi. 22 Against such persons as are had in a jelosie of revolting. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 24 §1 Some gelosie of their affection and favor towardes their kinsmen..hath bene conceyued and had against them. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 323 Sailing..without any mistrust or jealousy of Sands. 1702 J. Logan in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 82 Through a jealousy of the vessel being crank. 1714 C'tess Cowper Diary (1864) 36 He had some little Jealousy, before he went, that the fine Lady was Lady Harriet Vere. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §264 Some suspicion of the Polparra Fishermen, as having cut away the buoy..; a jealousy I should not have given way to. 1893 Stevenson Catriona xi. 119, I judged it was beyond the course of nature they could have any jealousy of where I was. |
6. = jalousie.
| 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge xviii. 288, I..peered through the open jealousies, or blinds, on the scene below. |
7. attrib.
| 1611 Bible Num. v. 25 Then the Priest shall take the ielousie offering out of the womans hand. 1899 S. Butler Shaks. Sonn. 98 The jealousy series must be dated in the spring months of 1585–6. |