Word of the Day

: August 7, 2017

schadenfreude

noun SHAH-dun-froy-duh

What It Means

: enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others

schadenfreude in Context

Elaine couldn't help but feel a tinge of schadenfreude when her chief rival was kicked off the soccer team.

"Much attention (and a decent amount of schadenfreude) has been paid to the relative erosion of the NFL's massive television ratings in recent years…." — Chad Finn, The Boston Globe, 26 May 2017

Did You Know?

Schadenfreude is a compound of the German nouns Schaden, meaning "damage" or "harm," and Freude, meaning "joy," so it makes sense that schadenfreude means joy over some harm or misfortune suffered by another. "What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others," wrote Richard Trench of Dublin, an archbishop with literary predilections, of the German Schadenfreude in 1852; perhaps it was just as well he didn't live to see the word embraced by English speakers before the century was out.