-Schadenfreude is the feeling of sudden, unexpected pleasure at another's misfortune or pain. It's commonly mistaken with sadism, but true sadism is taking pleasure in actually inflicting harm on another.
The etymology is simple: it comes directly from the German, with Schaden, meaning harm, and Freude, meaning joy. In that delightful German way, the two words are just slapped together to make a new, complex word.
All on its own, Schadenfreude is a great word. It succinctly describes something that would otherwise require a wordy, less elegant description. Plus, it's a word that's coming into vogue, so it's pretty likely to be understood by a literate crowd. What I love most about the word, though, is how utterly German it is. I don't think that I can explain it adequately, but it seems to me that if any language should have a word for this feeling, it is German. Partly it's because we associate black leather and whips with Germany, I think (let's face it: even among Europeans, Germans are pretty odd). Partly, too, it's that German seems to have a word for everything, probably because the Gerrmans are so likely, when searching for a word, to just glue several other words together and make a new one. It's just good engineering. This is very much one of those "I just love that there is a word for this" words.
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