diff --git a/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/InternalSpelExpressionParser.java b/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/InternalSpelExpressionParser.java
index 80a567e5148..11a3cdbee8e 100644
--- a/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/InternalSpelExpressionParser.java
+++ b/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/InternalSpelExpressionParser.java
@@ -599,7 +599,7 @@ class InternalSpelExpressionParser extends TemplateAwareExpressionParser {
 	// This is complicated due to the support for dollars in identifiers.  Dollars are normally separate tokens but
 	// there we want to combine a series of identifiers and dollars into a single identifier
 	private boolean maybeEatMethodOrProperty(boolean nullSafeNavigation) {
-			if (peekToken(TokenKind.IDENTIFIER)) {
+		if (peekToken(TokenKind.IDENTIFIER)) {
 			Token methodOrPropertyName = nextToken();
 			SpelNodeImpl[] args = maybeEatMethodArgs();
 			if (args==null) {
@@ -761,6 +761,14 @@ class InternalSpelExpressionParser extends TemplateAwareExpressionParser {
 			}
 			return true;
 		} else {
+			if (desiredTokenKind == TokenKind.IDENTIFIER) {
+				// might be one of the textual forms of the operators (e.g. NE for != ) - in which case we can treat it as an identifier
+				// The list is represented here: Tokenizer.alternativeOperatorNames and those ones are in order in the TokenKind enum
+				if (t.kind.ordinal()>=TokenKind.DIV.ordinal() && t.kind.ordinal()<=TokenKind.NOT.ordinal() && t.data!=null) {
+					// if t.data were null, we'd know it wasn't the textual form, it was the symbol form
+					return true;
+				}
+			}
 			return false;
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/TokenKind.java b/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/TokenKind.java
index deb311a21dc..c697396175b 100644
--- a/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/TokenKind.java
+++ b/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/TokenKind.java
@@ -25,9 +25,10 @@ enum TokenKind {
 	LPAREN("("), RPAREN(")"), COMMA(","), IDENTIFIER,
 	COLON(":"),HASH("#"),RSQUARE("]"), LSQUARE("["), 
 	LCURLY("{"),RCURLY("}"),
-	DOT("."), PLUS("+"), STAR("*"), DIV("/"), NOT("!"), MINUS("-"), SELECT_FIRST("^["), SELECT_LAST("$["), QMARK("?"), PROJECT("!["),
-	GE(">="),GT(">"),LE("<="),LT("<"),EQ("=="),NE("!="),ASSIGN("="), INSTANCEOF("instanceof"), MATCHES("matches"), BETWEEN("between"),
-	SELECT("?["),  MOD("%"), POWER("^"),
+	DOT("."), PLUS("+"), STAR("*"),  MINUS("-"), SELECT_FIRST("^["), SELECT_LAST("$["), QMARK("?"), PROJECT("!["),
+	DIV("/"), GE(">="), GT(">"), LE("<="), LT("<"), EQ("=="), NE("!="),
+	MOD("%"), NOT("!"), ASSIGN("="), INSTANCEOF("instanceof"), MATCHES("matches"), BETWEEN("between"),
+	SELECT("?["),   POWER("^"),
 	ELVIS("?:"), SAFE_NAVI("?."), BEAN_REF("@")
 	;
 	 
diff --git a/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/Tokenizer.java b/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/Tokenizer.java
index a31f16892b6..3811fde747b 100644
--- a/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/Tokenizer.java
+++ b/org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/standard/Tokenizer.java
@@ -360,7 +360,7 @@ class Tokenizer {
 			String asString = new String(subarray).toUpperCase();
 			int idx = Arrays.binarySearch(alternativeOperatorNames,asString);
 			if (idx>=0) {
-				pushOneCharOrTwoCharToken(TokenKind.valueOf(asString),start);
+				pushOneCharOrTwoCharToken(TokenKind.valueOf(asString),start,subarray);
 				return;
 			}
 		}
@@ -429,8 +429,8 @@ class Tokenizer {
 		pos+=2;
 	}
 	
-	private void pushOneCharOrTwoCharToken(TokenKind kind, int pos) {
-		tokens.add(new Token(kind,pos,pos+kind.getLength()));
+	private void pushOneCharOrTwoCharToken(TokenKind kind, int pos, char[] data) {
+		tokens.add(new Token(kind,data,pos,pos+kind.getLength()));
 	}
 
 	//	ID:	('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'_'|'$') ('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'_'|'$'|'0'..'9'|DOT_ESCAPED)*;
diff --git a/org.springframework.expression/src/test/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/SpringEL300Tests.java b/org.springframework.expression/src/test/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/SpringEL300Tests.java
index a2e1dc7d451..94ae9b021fa 100644
--- a/org.springframework.expression/src/test/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/SpringEL300Tests.java
+++ b/org.springframework.expression/src/test/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/SpringEL300Tests.java
@@ -1008,4 +1008,56 @@ public class SpringEL300Tests extends ExpressionTestCase {
 	      }
 	}    
 	
+
+	@Test
+	public void testReservedWords_8228() throws Exception {
+		// "DIV","EQ","GE","GT","LE","LT","MOD","NE","NOT"
+        @SuppressWarnings("unused")
+        class Reserver {
+        	public Reserver getReserver() {
+        		return this;
+        	}
+        	public String NE = "abc";
+        	public String ne = "def";
+        	
+        	public int DIV = 1;
+        	public int div = 3;
+        	
+        	public Map m = new HashMap();
+        	
+        	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+			Reserver() {
+        		m.put("NE","xyz");
+        	}
+        }
+        StandardEvaluationContext ctx = new StandardEvaluationContext(new Reserver());
+        SpelExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();
+        String ex = "getReserver().NE";
+        SpelExpression exp = null;
+        exp = parser.parseRaw(ex);
+        String value = (String)exp.getValue(ctx);
+        Assert.assertEquals("abc",value);
+
+        ex = "getReserver().ne";
+        exp = parser.parseRaw(ex);
+        value = (String)exp.getValue(ctx);
+        Assert.assertEquals("def",value);
+
+        ex = "getReserver().m[NE]";
+        exp = parser.parseRaw(ex);
+        value = (String)exp.getValue(ctx);
+        Assert.assertEquals("xyz",value);
+        
+        ex = "getReserver().DIV";
+        exp = parser.parseRaw(ex);
+        Assert.assertEquals(1,exp.getValue(ctx));
+
+        ex = "getReserver().div";
+        exp = parser.parseRaw(ex);
+        Assert.assertEquals(3,exp.getValue(ctx));
+        
+        exp = parser.parseRaw("NE");
+        Assert.assertEquals("abc",exp.getValue(ctx));
+	}
+	
 }