Word of the Day

: December 21, 2015

invidious

adjective in-VID-ee-us

What It Means

1 : tending to cause discontent, animosity, or envy

2 a : unpleasant, objectionable, or obnoxious

b : of a kind to cause harm or resentment

invidious in Context

"Consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes with various kinds of weeds … disturbing their delicate organizations so ruthlessly, and making such invidious distinctions with his hoe, levelling whole ranks of one species, and sedulously cultivating another." — Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

"Organizations that practice invidious discrimination detract from social justice. Whatever benefits they may have (of tradition, solidarity, community and self-expression) are undercut by the unpleasantness of treating people differently on the basis of arbitrary characteristics." — Noah Feldman, The Contra Costa (California) Times, 28 Jan. 2015

Did You Know?

Fittingly, invidious is a relative of envy. Both are descendants of invidia, the Latin word for "envy," which in turn comes from invidēre, meaning "to look askance at" or "to envy." (Invidious descends from invidia by way of the Latin adjective invidiosus, meaning "envious," whereas envy comes to English via the Anglo-French noun envie.) These days, however, invidious is rarely used as a synonym for envious. The preferred uses are primarily pejorative, describing things that are unpleasant (such as "invidious choices" and "invidious tasks") or worthy of scorn ("invidious remarks" or "invidious comparisons").