green-eyed monster
English
Etymology
green + eye + monster. Coined by William Shakespeare in his play Othello.
Noun
green-eyed monster (plural green-eyed monsters)
- (colloquial, usually with the) Envy, jealousy, covetousness.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii], page 324, column 1:
- [Iago:] Oh, beware my Lord, of iealouſie, / It is the greene-ey'd Monſter, which doth mocke / The meate it feeds on.
- 1856, Mary Jane Holmes, chapter X, in ’Lena Rivers:
- She was not to be convinced, and so poor Mr. Graham, who was really exceedingly polite and affable to the ladies, was almost constantly provoking the green-eyed monster by his attentions to some one of the fair sex.
- 1916, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Bab, a Sub-Deb:
- It was Harold. I decided to have him dark, with a very small black mustache, and passionate eyes. I felt, too, that he would be jealous. The eyes would be of the smoldering type, showing the green-eyed monster beneath.
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:
- The green-eyed monster had bitten [Jeeves]. He was miffed because he wasn't the brains behind this binge, the blue prints for it having been laid down by a rival. Even great men have their weaknesses.
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Derived terms
- green-eyed