Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude is the hot, hot word of the moment.
It's a noun and it means "a malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others." It's pronounced SHOD-n-froy-duh. It comes from the German, from Schaden, "damage" + Freude, "joy." It is often capitalized, as it is in German.
The word is hot right now because of the Spitzer Scandal. It describes both Spitzer's feeling when he took on his Wall Street enemies and others with self-righteous indignation and also the feeling of Spitzer's enemies and others now as they watch Spizer's fall from grace.
Delighting in the misfortunes of others seems to be epidemic these days.
Schadenfreude. It's all schadenfreude, darlings.

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