Word of the Day

Monday July 13, 2009

schadenfreude [SHOD-n-froy-duh]

noun

Call it schadenfreude, but it is hard to look away from the riches-to-rags stories of professional athletes. Sports Illustrated has a great article on this topic, with some alarming statistics: An estimated 60 per cent of NBA players go broke within five years of retiring from the basketball league.

David Berman, "Don't bank on financials to lead recovery", The Globe and Mail, Mar 25, 2009
Mr. Prohkorov may be reveling in schadenfreude: Mr. Putin's team forced him to sell his stake in Norilsk Nickel to Mr. Deripaska last April, near the peak of the market. Mr. Prohkorov is now cash-rich, while Mr. Deripaska is left with billions in debt.

Andrew E. Kramer, "The Last Days of the Oligarchs?", New York Times, Mar 8,2009
He must have been told as frequently as I have been told that he was giving pain to many worthy people; and even with the fullest allowance for the strain of impishness with which the Life Force endows those of us who are destined by it to épater le bourgeois, he cannot have believed that the mere satisfaction of this Punchesque Schadenfreude could justify him in hurting anyone's feelings.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) An Irish playwright. On the Rocks (1933)

Origin of the Word

Schadenfreude, approximately 1922, derives from German schaden "damage, harm, injury" + freude, "joy".