羨

Glyph origin
– to envy.

may be interpreted as a beautiful sheep or good mutton (cf. “beautiful” and  “good”).

The Kangxi Dictionary, following 《佩觿》, enters the word in etymology 2 as, separating it from (etymology 1). This is also followed by dictionaries such as ' and ', but  disagrees with this treatment. ( regards as the main form of all pronunciations.) According to 《說文解字羣經正字》:

Etymology 1
Possibly related to.

Definitions

 * 1) to envy; to admire
 * 2)  surplus
 * 3)  to exceed
 * 4)  crooked; evil
 * 5) 10th tetragram of the Taixuanjing (𝌏)
 * 1)  to exceed
 * 2)  crooked; evil
 * 3) 10th tetragram of the Taixuanjing (𝌏)
 * 1)  crooked; evil
 * 2) 10th tetragram of the Taixuanjing (𝌏)

Compounds

 * : jealous, envious
 * : to be jealous, to be envious

Etymology 1
From.

Etymology 2
From.