Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
[German : Schaden, damage (from Middle High German schade, from Old High German scado) + Freude, joy (from Middle High German vreude, from Old High German frewida, from frō, happy).]
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Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
[German : Schaden, damage (from Middle High German schade, from Old High German scado) + Freude, joy (from Middle High German vreude, from Old High German frewida, from frō, happy).]
Columnist George Will, who seems to enjoy the
"Sins can be such fun. Of the seven supposedly deadly ones, only envy does not give the sinner at least momentary pleasure. And an eighth, schadenfreude — enjoyment of other persons' misfortunes — is almost the national pastime."
Link: The economics of baseball — George Will
Posted October 15, 2006.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
(German) delight in another person's misfortune
Schadenfreude (IPA: [ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏdə]
Audio (German)?) is a German word meaning 'pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune'. It has been borrowed by the
English language[1] and is sometimes also used as a loanword by other languages.
It derives from Schaden (damage, harm) and Freude (joy); Schaden derives from the Middle High German schade, from the Old High German scado, and freude comes from the Middle High German vreude, from the Old High German frewida, from frō, (happy). In German, the word always carries a negative connotation. A distinction exists between "secret schadenfreude" (a private feeling) and "open schadenfreude" (Hohn).
Usually, it is stated that Schadenfreude has no direct English equivalent. For example, Harper Collins German-English Dictionary translates schadenfreude as "malicious glee or gloating." However, an apparent English equivalent is epicaricacy, derived from the Greek word ἐπιχαιρεκακία, epichaerecacia. This word does not appear in most modern dictionaries, but does appear in Nathaniel Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1727) under a slightly different spelling (epicharikaky), which gives its etymology as a compound of epi (upon), chara (joy), and kakon (evil). A more common English equivalent than 'epicaricacy' might be the expression 'Roman holiday', which means pleasure derived from watching someone else's suffering, and is derived from the delight of Roman citizens' at the gladiatorial spectacles in the Colosseum.
Another phrase with a meaning similar to Schadenfreude is "morose delectation" ("delectatio morosa" in Latin), meaning "the habit of dwelling with enjoyment on evil thoughts".[2] The medieval church taught morose delectation is a sin.[3][4] French writer Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) maintained that the appeal of sadism is morose delectation.[5][6]
In English, the word sometimes is capitalized, because of the German grammatical convention of capitalizing all common nouns in addition to proper nouns; however, as a loanword in English, it is typically left uncapitalized, following the rules of English orthography.
The Buddhist concept of mudita, "sympathetic joy" or "happiness in another's good fortune," is cited as an example of the opposite of schadenfreude.[7][8]
Similar terms in other languages:
In Swedish and Norwegian, there is also the saying: skadeglädjen/fryd är den enda sanna glädjen/fryd ("schadenfreude is the only true joy"). A Finnish variant is: vahingonilo on aidointa iloa, sillä siihen ei sisälly tippaakaan kateutta ("schadenfreude is the most genuine kind of joy, since it doesn't include even a drop of envy"). A Slovak variant is: škodoradosť je najväčšia radosť ("schadenfreude is the greatest joy"), similar in meaning to the Hungarian variant: legszebb öröm a káröröm, and the Estonian: kahjurõõm on kõige suurem rõõm. In Hebrew the saying is: 'אין שמחה כשמחה לאיד' ("There is no joy like schadenfreude"). In Danish, the saying is: Egen lykke er at foretrække men andres ulykke er dog ikke at foragte, and translates to "(One's) own happiness is to be preferred, but the misfortune of others should not be scorned." In Dutch the saying is: Er is geen beter vermaak dan leedvermaak ("There's no better entertainment than schadenfreude"). The German version reads: Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude. ("Schadenfreude is the greatest joy.")
In Thai, the phrase สมน้ำหน้า, som nam na, can be interpreted as: "You got what you deserved"; "Serves you right"; or "I'm laughing at your bad luck".
In Korean, the phrase 고소하다, go so ha da, literally translated means "to smell sesame oil", because in Korea the smell of sesame oil is regarded as very pleasant, this phrase also is used when one is pleased about a particular event. It is especially used when one is pleased about an event involving the misfortune of another.
In Chinese, the phrase xìngzāi lèhuò (simplified Chinese: 幸灾乐祸; traditional Chinese: 幸災樂禍) is an old idiom that directly translates to "enjoying (other's) calamity (and) laughing at (other's) misfortune".
In Japanese, the phrase 他人の不幸は蜜の味, tanin no fukou wa mitsu no aji, translates literally as "others' misfortunes are the taste of honey".
In Tagalog/Filipino, the phrase "Buti ngà sa iyó," which taken word for word means "Good for you", but sarcastically translates as "Serves you right"; "Buti ngà sa kanyá" as "Serves him/her right." The general expression, however, is just "Buti ngà!"
There is also an americanized version of schadenfreude which is pronounced "shadenfruity".
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