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Was ist der Unterschied zwischen Eifersucht und Neid? Mein Wörterbuch übersetzt beide Wörter nach jealousy.

RegDwight
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Tim
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2 Answers2

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Eifersucht has a strongly relational connotation, while Neid has a very material and status connotation.

So, the nuance is, that if you are jealous that your parents like your little brother more than you, then you are eifersüchtig, but if you are jealous that they give him the bigger piece of the cake then you are neidisch or, less common, neidig.

This is especially true of sexual jealousy which is always Eifersucht.

Phira
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    It's neidisch, not neidig. – fzwo May 25 '11 at 13:44
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    Where you live, this may be so. – Phira May 25 '11 at 15:28
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    This has nothing to do with where I live. Neidisch is ordinary high german, and I think that's what we should strive for here, if not explicitly stating otherwise. The Duden says (landschaftlich) neidig, so this is obviously not high german, which should probably be clarified. – fzwo May 25 '11 at 15:32
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    You cannot reduce the German language to a dictionary of one country. – Phira May 25 '11 at 15:35
  • But I think you should make a difference between standard high german and regional differences / dialect. In 19 years in Germany I never heard "neidig" and would be confused if someone used it, hence my need for clarification. – Jemus42 May 25 '11 at 15:54
  • @thei no, but IMHO you should not answer with dialect without indication. I see you've edited your post accordingly, thank you. I've started a question on meta, just so we get a clear guideline for the future. Feel free to discuss there :) – fzwo May 25 '11 at 18:21
  • @thei: So where do you live? – Hendrik Vogt Jun 06 '11 at 15:39
  • @Hendrik: My German is Viennese. – Phira Jun 06 '11 at 16:36
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    @thei: OK, I almost guessed so since ammoQ also wrote "neidig". In Germany, "neidig" is not "less common" but "plain wrong". Of course I agree with you that "you cannot reduce the German language ...", but instead of "less common" you might want to be more explicit and write "in Austria" or something like that. – Hendrik Vogt Jun 06 '11 at 16:51
  • @Hendrik: As I have already said: Will you add "in Germany" to everything you write just in case it is plain wrong in Austria? (And yes, this happens.) – Phira Jun 06 '11 at 17:17
  • @thei: No, indeed I wouldn't. But I somehow thought that would be kind of the default, just due to size of the populations. My bad, maybe. (Please point me to the right meta question if I'm mistaken here.) – Hendrik Vogt Jun 06 '11 at 17:31
  • @Hendrik Vogt: Neidig is certainly not plain wrong, it has been or is used in Bavaria, it's dialect of course. – brunnerh Jun 26 '11 at 16:49
  • @H.B.: OK, my statement was perhaps a bit too strict, but I'd still say it's a very good approximation of the truth. I'm a native speaker and haven't ever heard neidig, and to someone learning German I'd still say "it's plain wrong". – Hendrik Vogt Jun 26 '11 at 19:30
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Neid ist envy und Eifersucht ist jealousy. (Diese Wörter werden in der englischen Laiensprache meistens auswechselbar angewendet. Die beschreiben aber tatsächlich – genau wie im Deutschen – unterschiedliche Emotionen.)

Laut Wikipedia heißt es, "dass ein eifersüchtiger Mensch Angst hat, zu verlieren, was (oder wen) er besitzt und wirklich oder vermeintlich braucht, und ein neidischer Mensch das haben will, was andere besitzen".

misterben
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    So wird es auch in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur definiert. Auf die hübsche Frau meines Nachbarn kann ich nur neidig sein, aber wenn mein Nachbar mit meiner Frau flirtet, werde ich eifersüchtig. – Erich Kitzmüller Jun 02 '11 at 18:28