ENVIOUS/JEALOUS

(A proofreader's note regarding “envious” and “jealous”)

The Latin origin of “envious” had meanings 

Of “envy” and “jealousy” both.

Now, “envious” and “jealous,” unenviable fellows,

Are often mistaken by rote.

Since “envious” must picture one's “feeling of envy,”

Consider what “envy” implies:

Advantages held by another are coveted

Midst some displeasure and sighs.

This “wanting of something possessed by another”

Is found within “jealousy,” too.

A covetousness may reflect in them both,

But one's jealousy brings more to rue.

Except when it has this same meaning as “envious,”

Our “jealous” seems prompted by fear.

Hostility, rivalry usually are promised,

Dislike, then, an element near.

Unlike its friend “envious,” it has other senses:

“Not bearing with unfaithfulness

Or rivalry, likewise”; “suspecting such quickly”;

“Alert to guard thing owned and blest.”

“Since jealous is broader in meaning than envious,

The latter may envy its clone.

Most people who're envious of traits in another

Are jealous with love of their own.”