You know, in the million and one discussions we've had about epicaricacy and Schadenfreude it's never occurred to me until five minutes ago that "gloating" seems to be a perfectly adequate substitute.

gloating

Excellent!

Isn't that the time just before sunrise or sunset when the sun is exceedingly proud of itself, despite what mayhem it may have caused?

How interesting. I really hadn't realized that gloating had meant taking malicious pleasure until I read the dictionaries. I had thought it meant a "scornful satisfaction," as one dictionary said. Or as another said, "excessive satisfaction."

I note that the German synonym for it seems to be "sich weiden." How is that different from "Schadenfreude?" The Greek equivalent I couldn't read because of the letters: αισθάνομαι χαιρεκακία. Any Greek readers here? The second looked a little like the Greek version of "epicaricacy," but who knows.

Bob, what a great post for my Blog!

The difference between gloating and Schadenfreude is that gloating may apply either to excessive happiness at your own success [u]or[/u] at another's failure, whereas Schadenfreude and the E-word are only concerned with the other's failure. Not all personal successes come at the expense of someone else.

Still, Bob's right. It is a perfectly acceptable substitute.

WM

Yes, I agree, WM. There is somewhat of a difference. I might gloat about a paper that was accepted for publication, thus irritating my friends for my arrogance. Yet, my gloating has nothing to do with someone else's misery. I've only seen it used with that meaning, but perhaps others have seen it used as a synonym for Schadenfreude or epicaricacy.

Still, it's very close.

αισθάνομαι χαιρεκακία: aisthanomai khairekakia

The second word is found in ἐπιχαιρεκακία epikhairekakia: χαιρω khairō "to rejoice" + κακος kakos "evil"

Thanks, goofy. So it is considered to be a synonym of epicaricacy, but not Schadenfreude. Interesting.

I will have to look at a published thesaurus (I mostly use the online one) to see what they say synonyms of "gloat" are.

I just put sich weiden into the Google Translator, and the answer was, "to gloat over."

As I had said on my Blog, I think the difference is that Schadenfreude and epicaricacy are all about taking joy in others' misery. However, gloat seems more about taking excessive self-satisfaction in one's own successes. Another person doesn't have to be involved.

[Notice how I often find a way of linking to my own Blog? Shameful, isn't it?]

[edited for stupid mistake]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

quote:

Schadenfreude and epicaricacy are all about taking misery in others' joy

Wait - I thought they were about taking joy in another person's misery . . . ?

Well of course! I just corrected it, CW. Duh!

Thank you for picking that up.

"That word" was recently printed in the online Times