On the Colbert Report(the Daily Show spin-off), there was a joke that many here would appreciate, although it is slightly inaccurate. This is paraphrased.
Colbert: There is a new movement in Germany trying to make Germans happier. (Shows clip from some German happiness campaign) This is bad, because when Germans are happy, everyone else is unhappy. (Show newspaper headline when Germany invaded Poland in 1939) The Germans call it Schadenfreude, (Shows a graphic with the word in a dictionary layout), and they're the only ones who even have a word for it.
This was pretty funny, although probably ethnically insensitive, as well as being inaccurate, since German isn't the only language with a word for this. Still, it isn't often word jokes like this come up on Comedy Central.
I know of at least one language that has a word for schadenfreude: Greek. In fact, schadenfreude was coined in 1591 by Ostermann for the Latin phrase libitinariorum vota "undertakers' vows" (which occurs in Seneca De beneficiis, 6, 38, 4.).
Undertaker's vows? Don't take joy in someone's death (because, after all, you make money from it)?
Sean, thanks for that. How funny! Quite appropriate for this board, really. The fact is, if I were to rename this board, it would probably be "Epicaricactic Musings," or something similar. I bet we'd get hits with that, if only because people would wonder what it is.
I was wondering how the meaning of "Schadenfreude" evolved from libitinariorum vota and thought maybe undertakers took a vow not to be joyful when they got business. It was just a thought.
I found it in Kluge's Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. I have been trying to track down the Seneca text (for the full context) and Ostermann's translation, but my regular job keeps reprioritizing itself.
Quite appropriate for this board, really. The fact is, if I were to rename this board, it would probably be "Epicaricactic Musings," or something similar. I bet we'd get hits with that, if only because people would wonder what it is.
