Etymology
Origin of jaundiced
Explanation
So you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror. To your surprise, and horror, instead of your usual rosy complexion, your skin is yellow and the whites of your eyes are yellow, too! You, my friend, are jaundiced. Jaundice is from the Greek, ikteros, which referred to both the disease and a rare, yellow bird. It was thought that someone with jaundice could stare at this yellow bird, and the jaundice would be magically transferred to the bird. Jaundiced can also refer to ideas or feelings being distorted by negative views or qualities, since yellow has been associated with bitterness and envy. Too bad there is no bird to get rid of that!
Vocabulary lists containing jaundiced
Educated
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Fever 1793
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The Bluest Eye
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In summary, we are viewing the failure of SPX to be able to convincingly push through to new all-time highs with a jaundiced eye.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 8, 2026
Mr. Coen’s view of the contemporary dating scene seems both jaundiced and out of touch.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025
Grant Olding has written the songs that set the play’s mood, a mischievous Joe Orton-esque ambiance, only less jaundiced and more childlike.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2025
Rather than an economy producing opportunity for all, and a politics organized to address the public’s most urgent problems and concerns, many Americans have become jaundiced and cynical.
From Salon • Oct. 14, 2024
Two windows on either side glowed like jaundiced eyes in the darkness.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
