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Something invidious is unpleasant because it is likely to offend people, stir envy, or make you unpopular. An invidious comparison ranks two people so that one feels small. An invidious position is a job or choice where, whatever you do, somebody will be angry — the ‘whoever I pick, I lose a friend’ task. It is a formal adjective, at home in newspapers, essays, and careful speech, not in the . Though actually, it does not merely mean ‘unpleasant’: wet weather is unpleasant; an invidious remark is unpleasant because it breeds ill will. US legal English also speaks of invidious discrimination — unfair treatment that singles people out in a hateful way. The Latin parent is invidia, envy. Envious describes a person who feels that sting; invidious describes the situation or remark that causes it. They are sister words from the same Latin parent, different roads into English.
招人怨的、吃力不討好的（不是單純「不愉快」）
組成Borrowed from Latin invidiōsus, from invidia (“envy, ill will”), from in- (“upon”) + videō (“to see”); the meaning moved from looking at someone, to looking at them with a hard eye, to envy. Doublet of envious.
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
invidiousadj/ɪnˈvɪdi.əs/
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Causing ill will, envy, or offense.
- To think highly of ourselves in comparison with others, to assume by our own authority that precedence which none is willing to grant, must be always invidious and offensive; […]
- ‘I didn’t make use of the word in any invidious sense, ma’am,’ replied Mr. Benjamin Allen, growing somewhat uneasy on his own account.
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Offensively or unfairly discriminating.
- But the rich man—not to make any invidious comparison—is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.
- There were so many drinks to be drunk, and as the warm magic poured through our veins and mellowed our voices and affections we knew it was no time to make invidious distinctions—to drink with this shipmate and to decline to drink with that shipmate.
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obsoleteEnvious, jealous.
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Detestable, hateful, or odious. (Often used in cases of perceived unfairness, or when facing a difficult situation or choice — especially in the phrase invidious position.)
- The sales representative was in an invidious position: she could either get to the meeting on time but with nothing to show the client, or pick up the product samples while the client was kept waiting. Neither one would make a favourable impression!
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。