quote:

Schadenfreude — what a deliciously, chewy German word to convey the pleasure to be had in others’ misfortunes. In France, they call it joie maligne. In England, it is epicaricacy, which conjures up lavish banqueting visions of dishes best served cold. The Irish language has no word for schadenfreude, probably because, as history’s perennial underdogs, a lexicon of uppityness would have been surplus to the requirements of our antecedent Gaels.