As thousands of online reference guide users have recently learned, the dictionary defines "schadenfreude" as "enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others."
On Friday morning, Merriam-Webster reported a 30,500% increase in queries for the word following the revelation that Donald and Melania Trump had contracted COVID-19 — which, of course, came after months of the White House's insufficient and ineffective response to the pandemic.
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The archaic term, with origins dating back as far as the late 18th century, literally combines the German words for "damage" or "harm" ("schaden") and "joy" ("freude").
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Used in a sentence, one might say, "I'm struck by schadenfreude when I consider my annoying neighbor's car getting crushed by the 12-foot-tall skeleton they put in their front yard." Or perhaps, "Donald Trump getting the same illness he failed to protect our nation from gives me a feeling of schadenfreude."
When written, schadenfreude is often capitalized — in German, all nouns are. That said, when used in English, the capitalization of Schadenfreude is a matter of style.
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The 25¢ word (a price point we should really consider in this economy) has cropped up across social media platforms and search engines in the past 48 hours.
Use it as a search term pretty much anywhere and you'll unleash a vitriolic torrent of accusations, anger, and — why, yes — schadenfreude! The condensed version can best be summarized by a recent Mashable headline: "Trump announced he has COVID-19, so of course, Twitter descended into chaos." Yep. Chaos.
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Messy, sad, and genuinely pretty funny, no situation has even been more fitting of the often misapplied word. Good luck out there, feeler of emotions. Schadenfreude is a fickle mistress.
Topics Donald Trump Politics
