A Cool Word

The German language has some fascinating words, some of which have made their way into accepted use in other languages.

Schadenfreude: The pleasure one gets from talking about catastrophies; delight in another person’s misfortune.

I came across this in the short story “Thomas the Proclaimer,” by Robert Silverberg, published in his novelette collection entitled Sailing to Byzantium. (Thanks to Kevin Miller for the loan of the book.)

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