Definitions
Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word schauden freude.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
ramsler commented on the word schauden freude
German expression, meaning "taking pleasure in the pain of others" (or so I'm told). Generally a feeling of satisfaction at bad things happening to people we don't like or care about. Perhaps the basis for slapstick humor, especially when the bad things have no permanence; so, for example, when someone in a fancy dress is spalshed by water in a puddle (such as the Cary Bradshaw in the opening of Sex and the City TV series episodes when she sees herself on the side of a NYC bus poster--just before the bus splashed her?
March 27, 2009