What is the difference between 嫉妒 and 忌妒?

Question

嫉妒 and 忌妒 both means jealously. 嫉 is second tone and 忌 is fourth tone.

Why are there two words with different intonations for essentially the same meaning? Isn't that superfluous and pointless? Or is there some subtle difference that I'm missing here? Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

嫉 implies 'hate'

忌 implies 'fear'

嫉妒 jealous (and hate)

忌妒 jealous (and fear)

Answer 2

I think 嫉妒 and 忌妒 are (通用)同義詞(synonym). Similar to 嫉(同妒), one meaning of 忌 means "hating others who are better than self" - 因别人比自己好而生怨恨 (jealous; be jealous of).

忌的常用詞:

• 忌前(妒嫉贤才);忌妇(妒妇，善妒的妻子);忌克(忌妒他人才能而想超过他);忌才(嫉妒他人的才华或才能)

嫉的常用詞:

• 嫉诬(因嫉妒而诬告);嫉病(忌妒指责);嫉心(嫉妒之心);嫉毁(嫉妒毁谤)

Answer 3

嫉妒 和 忌 和有什麼不一樣？ 「嫉妒」讀「ㄐㄧ妒(二聲)」，「妒忌」讀「妒ㄐㄧ(四聲)」，這兩個詞雖然意思一樣，但「嫉」卻不通「忌」。

「嫉」與「妒」都是因他人勝過自己而猜忌懷恨，可以說是一種憎恨別人勝過自己的負面情緒，一般並不採用顛倒過來的「妒嫉」，同樣的，「妒忌」也不通「忌妒」。

因此務必清楚，要嘛用「嫉妒」，要嘛用「妒忌」，不可任意代換！

「嫉妒」雖是發自於內心，卻往往「形之於相」，因此很容易從態度上看得出來，尤其在言行舉止間，更容易讓人察覺出「嫉妒」心理。

舉例來說，有人口頭上說「我不買名牌，不穿名牌」，其實表示他「嫉妒」別人買名牌、穿名牌；也有人說，我「討厭選舉」，我從來「不想出國」，這也表示他看到別人出國，看到別人選舉，「嫉妒」心理已躍然紙上，顯露無遺。

如果一切都能隨喜，一切都能讚嘆，就不會只准自己建高樓，不准別人住洋房，「嫉妒」也就不復存在了！

Answer 4

I think 嫉妒 vs 忌妒/妒忌 is somehow like be jealous vs envy. It can still be nice to tell a friend 我妒忌你/你真令我妒忌 in a joyful voice, but 我嫉妒你 is to start a fight.

Their are some subtle differences. Both words are negative feelings. 嫉妒 is more in hostility, e.g. I feel 嫉妒 about the promotion of my competitor. 妒忌 doesn’t have to imply hostility, the meaning is near to the word envy, e.g. 妒忌 about someone's (good) family relationship. I also think 妒忌 (4th and light tone) now is more often used than 忌妒.

Answer 5

嫉妒：是对他人的优越地位而心中产生的不愉快的情感。

忌妒：对才能﹑名誉﹑地位或境遇比自己好的人心怀怨恨的人。