What do we mean when we say it today?
Stop us if you've heard this one before. A jealous boyfriend who actually has nothing to worry about ruins his relationship with his girl after he accuses her of cheating. That's the green-eyed monster at work. And it's also super ironic. If he had just taken a chill pill, he could have kept the girl. But since he freaked out about it and went all accusation-crazy, he lost her.
The truth is, we see this dynamic pop up all over the place on TV, in movies, and in songs. We couldn't isolate just one to mention. There are so many stories that feature the green-eyed monster, we hardly knew where to start.
When we hear someone say "the green-eyed monster" today, he's for sure talking about jealousy and not a Godzilla-like creature running around New York. But jealousy still ruins an awful lot of things (marriages, relationships, you name it.) And this nasty trait sure gets a lot of attention for doing it.