Weiyang Luo
Could someone explain a bit about the word "invidious"?Thank you. Like in the sentence "Personally I have been put in an invidious position" I looked up some dictionaries but the explanations are not concise enough to get my head around it. Would sb expound on it a bit ? Thank you very much.
Apr 29, 2014 10:15 PM
Answers · 6
2
I'm sorry, but Molly is incorrect or at least incomplete. Invidious means "tending to cause envy, anger, resentment or, simply, a bad feeling in other people". So, in other words, something you do or something someone else does causes other people to feel angry, envious or some other negative emotion. "Personally I have been put in an invidious position." This *could* mean you are in a difficult/hard situation. But the reason it is hard is because what you have to do will cause OTHERS to had bad feelings toward you.
April 30, 2014
1
Invidious is like 'awkward' or 'difficult'. 'Personally, I have been put in an awkward position.' or 'Personally, I have been put in a difficult position.' An easier word to remember is 'hard.' 'Personally, I have been put in a hard position.' But I believe 'awkward' or 'difficult' sound better than 'hard.' I hope this helps. :D
April 29, 2014
1
I would add to the answers that it is a "literary" kind of word. The reason why it is easy to be mistaken about the precise meaning--Mojave is correct, but I had to look it up to be sure myself--is that it is a word I've often read, particularly in older books, but rarely use. It's not part of my active vocabulary. I know it best as part of a specific expression, "comparisons are invidious," meaning "don't compare people to each other, it just creates bad feeling."
April 30, 2014
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