Meaning
Extremely envious: someone turns or is green with envy when they keenly want what another person has. Usually light or exaggerated in tone, and most often constructed as 'turn green with envy' or 'green with envy at' someone's luck. The colour belongs to a very old tradition that read envy and jealousy in a pale, sickly complexion. Usually humorous or hyperbolic; the poetic green-eyed monster form is stronger and more literary. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The OED records green of the complexion as pale, sickly or bilious from a1275, a hue taken to indicate fear, envy, ill humour or sickness, and its etymology note connects the association with Greek chloros (green, pale) and with ancient and medieval bile medicine. English evidence for the envy link specifically is medieval, not classical: the Middle English Dictionary, cited by Grammarphobia, shows green used symbolically of envy by Chaucer, Lydgate and others before Shakespeare fixed it in the language with 'green-eyed jealousy' (The Merchant of Venice) and the 'green-eyed monster' (Othello, c. 1603). The exact phrase 'green with envy' (also 'green with jealousy') is OED-dated 1863, first in Charles Reade's Hard Cash ('turning almost green with jealousy'), with the envy wording itself from 1881.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- green with envy at
- green with jealousy
- turn green with envy
Usage Examples
- Neighbours turned green with envy when the glass extension won a design award.
- She was green with envy at her sister's seats for the final.
- He pretended not to care, but he was quietly green with envy about the fellowship.