# Schadenfreude



## suzzzenn

Hola a todos, 

¿Existe la palabra SCHADENFREUDE en espanol? ¿Como la traduciría?

Gracias,
Susan


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## VenusEnvy

This is interesting. I had never heard this word before.


I can't say whether it exists in Spanish, or not. But, I can say that it's not English! It sounds like German, or Hebrew?.... The word wasn't translated into English, it was kept as is in the original tongue. So, I would say that you wouldn't translate it, but rather consider it a borrowed word from another language.


This is just an opinion, Susan. Let's wait for others...


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## Jade

Hola Susan,

no conozco ninguna palabra en español para Schadenfreude pero se explicaría como " alegría por el mal ajeno"

Un saludo

Jade



			
				suzzzenn said:
			
		

> Hola a todos,
> 
> ¿Existe la palabra SCHADENFREUDE en espanol? ¿Como la traduciría?
> 
> Gracias,
> Susan


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## Camui

No es una palabra española, es alemana.

Schadenfreude: alegría por la desgracia ajena.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude


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## araceli

Hola
Alegría por la desgracia ajena, es lo que vi en Google.
No creo que haya una palabra equivalente en castellano.
Lo paso al foro German.
Saludos.


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## Jana337

Yes, I confirm that it is maliciousness. Interestingly, it is one of the few German words that you find in English dictionaries.

Jana


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## Ralf

The WR dictionary has a good definition: delight in other person's misfortune, which conveys exactly the German connotation. By the way, I came across "schadenfreude" in books of modern American writers et least two times in the past year--looks like it catches on in modern American/English usage.

What I'm most curious about is the English pronunciation.

Ralf


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## gaer

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Yes, I confirm that it is maliciousness. Interestingly, it is one of the few German words that you find in English dictionaries.
> 
> Jana


Jana, not maliciousness—malicious glee. That would be the most standard translation.  (It's not exactly right though, since malice is a desire or intent to cause harm, pain, etc. Since "Freude" is "joy", and "Schaden" is "adversity, harm, damage, loss", "Schadenfreude" it is about feeling joy or glee when you see other people harmed, in pain, etc., which technically is different. But I believe "malicious glee" actually describes a feeling, not an act, so it's a tough call. I think the meaning turns out to be the same.)

If there is a translation for "malicious glee" that works in Spanish, that would be best if the German word is not used.

Gaer


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## gaer

Ralf said:
			
		

> The WR dictionary has a good definition: delight in other person's misfortune, which conveys exactly the German connotation.


Right, but it must be:

Delight in _*another*_ person's misfortune, and since this is not limited to enjoying the pain of only one person—think of terrorists who attempt to kill countless people—malicious glee actually works better, since it only talks about the feeling of joy or glee at seeing misfortune.

But I think you will see schadenfreude, no capital, used more and more, since it's a perfect word for a very evil concept, and no other expression packs the same power. 

Gaer


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## suzzzenn

Hello German forum!

I have never posted in here before! I am not sure why this post was moved here since my question was about a word that exists in English and its translation into Spanish. Even though schadenfreunde was borrowed directly from German, it is accepted in English, found in dictionaries, and used occasionally. I have even heard it used on a popular television show. I wanted to know if Spanish had also borrowed this word, or if it had an equivalent, as can be found in Dutch or Hungarian. 

I think this thread should be moved back to the Spanish forum. 

Susan


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## jorge_val_ribera

suzzzenn said:
			
		

> I wanted to know if Spanish had also borrowed this word, or if it had an equivalent, as can be found in Dutch or Hungarian.


 
Not that I know. I haven't ever read "Schadenfreude" in a Spanish text, nor have I ever heard it in a conversation in Spanish. I know it directly from German. 

There's no word that translates the exact meaning in Spanish, you have to use the expressions that have already been posted.


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## gaer

suzzzenn said:
			
		

> Hello German forum!
> 
> I have never posted in here before! I am not sure why this post was moved here since my question was about a word that exists in English and its translation into Spanish. Even though schadenfreunde was borrowed directly from German, it is accepted in English, found in dictionaries, and used occasionally. I have even heard it used on a popular television show. I wanted to know if Spanish had also borrowed this word, or if it had an equivalent, as can be found in Dutch or Hungarian.
> 
> I think this thread should be moved back to the Spanish forum.
> 
> Susan


Susan, I understand your frustration, but normally we have at least two or three people in this forum who speak Spanish as their mother-tongue, so USUALLY we would have gotten really good answers quickly, since they also understand German very well.

Now, where are they today? 

Regardless, it is now at least a two language mystery. I'm very curious myself about what the Spanish answer might be. 

Gaer


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## gaer

jorge_val_ribera said:
			
		

> Not that I know. I haven't ever read "Schadenfreude" in a Spanish text, nor have I ever heard it in a conversation in Spanish. I know it directly from German.
> 
> There's no word that translates the exact meaning in Spanish, you have to use the expressions that have already been posted.


But Jorge, what about "malicious glee"? How would you translate that into Spanish? 

Gaer


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## jorge_val_ribera

gaer said:
			
		

> But Jorge, what about "malicious glee"? How would you translate that into Spanish?
> 
> Gaer


 
Good question hehe. If I had to translate it, I would say "alegría malsana", but that might be wrong, I'd better leave it to the experts  .


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## gaer

jorge_val_ribera said:
			
		

> Good question hehe. If I had to translate it, I would say "alegría malsana", but that might be wrong, I'd better leave it to the experts  .


The problem is that usually "malicious" has to do with "doing something".

For instance, "malicious gossip", which may be "chisme malicioso", has to do with deliberately saying something that hurts another person or many people. But with malicious glee, I'm just not sure if this means that you do anything, which makes it a bit weird. Of course, you could picture some character in a movie rubbing his hands together at the damage that is about to happen when he also CAUSED the damage—think of "The Joker" in Batman. 

But I think this covers another situation much more frequently, in which someone (or many people) enjoy seeing other people suffer, yet no one actually did anything to make it happen.

Again, the problem is the purity of concept in German. There, there is NO direct connection between a deed and a result, at least as I see it. So in German, it's all about being mean-spirited, about the enjoyment of suffering, but no act is implied. And that's what makes it unique and such a translation problem. 

Gaer


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## Whodunit

jorge_val_ribera said:
			
		

> Good question hehe. If I had to translate it, I would say "alegría malsana", but that might be wrong, I'd better leave it to the experts  .


 
In a German-Spanish dictionary I found that "el gustazo" for "die Schadenfreude", but I can't find it in any other dictionary. Surprisingly,. I get more than 80,000 results on Google for "gustazo".


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## jorge_val_ribera

Well, "alegría malsana" is more like "morbosidad" (= morbidity), like the example you gave with the people who enjoy watching people suffer. But, in my opinion, it can also be active, like when you love torturing or killing people for no reason or doing other less serious damage (also psychological) to a person. 




> In a German-Spanish dictionary I found that "el gustazo" for "die Schadenfreude", but I can't find it in any other dictionary. Surprisingly,. I get more than 80,000 results on Google for "gustazo".


 
  Maybe in some other country, but here that doesn't apply AT ALL! Here "gustazo" is just a big "gusto"  (colloquially)

_Tuve el gusto de conocerla. / Tuve el gustazo de conocerla._


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## Jana337

OK, Susan has a point: As I pointed out above, the word is a part of the English vocab. Therefore, it can be in the Spanish forum. Moving it back.

Jana


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## ash11

Sumandose a lo que escribió Araceli, que tal "alegria _enfermiza_ por la desgracia ajena"?


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## MrMagoo

gaer said:
			
		

> Jana, not maliciousness—malicious glee. That would be the most standard translation.  (It's not exactly right though, since malice is a desire or intent to cause harm, pain, etc. Since "Freude" is "joy", and "Schaden" is "adversity, harm, damage, loss", "Schadenfreude" it is about feeling joy or glee when you see other people harmed, in pain, etc., which technically is different. But I believe "malicious glee" actually describes a feeling, not an act, so it's a tough call. I think the meaning turns out to be the same.)
> 
> If there is a translation for "malicious glee" that works in Spanish, that would be best if the German word is not used.
> 
> Gaer


 

"Schadenfreude" _basically_ means "delight in another person's misfortune" as you mentioned, gaer, and right: _usually_ this does not mean "delight in seeing people suffer".

You can have "Schadenfreude" by a scenery you caused yourself (best and classic examples: Wilhelm Busch's "Max und Moritz" or Ludwig Thoma's "Lausbubengeschichten"), but the way more common situations that cause Schadenfreude are those that you have no influence on.

Schadenfreude you can have when you see somebody who's in any embarassing situation - "Schadenfreude" is the feeling you have when you watch "You've been framed" ("Bitte lächeln!" in German) - which basically means: without any bad faith.

And to pick up Ralf's question again: How is Schadenfreude pronounced in English?! ;-)


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## cubaMania

In USA we approximate the German pronunciation.  It comes out as
shadenfroyde with the 'a' pronounced as 'ah' and the final 'e' being short as in education.


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## gaer

MrMagoo said:
			
		

> "Schadenfreude" _basically_ means "delight in another person's misfortune" as you mentioned, gaer, and right: _usually_ this does not mean "delight in seeing people suffer".


Hmm. This gets tricky, because now we have to differentiate between literal suffering (pain, perhaps horrible pain over a long period) and figurative suffering, which is a very different matter. 

Figurative exmample: "Ha, they got what's coming to them, so let them suffer." Here "suffer" might be no more than a great deal of embarrassment. 

More seriously: if we can't agree about how serious the "suffering" must be, or what the limitation is, we aren't even going to get a reliable definition. Apparently you are saying that if I hate someone, really HATE someone, and that person suffers a terrible accident that will ruin the rest of his life, if I feel joy or glee knowing this, it does not fall under "Schadenfreude". Yet there are many people in this world who do indeed feel nothing but an evil kind of joy when an enemy, or someone they perceive to be an enemy, suffers such a fate. I'm not sure you will get a consensus among Germans as to the exact limit of what falls under this word. In my opinion, this is another case of something being very, very hard to nail down.


> You can have "Schadenfreude" by a scenery you caused yourself (best and classic examples: Wilhelm Busch's "Max und Moritz" or Ludwig Thoma's "Lausbubengeschichten"), but the way more common situations that cause Schadenfreude are those that you have no influence on.


I THINK the same is true of "malicious glee", but now we have the same problem in English. Other people may not agree. So this is only my view. The concept in my mind involves being very happy, delighted, to find out that something bad or horrible has happened to someone else (or many people) who is (are) hated. Yes, someone could both cause the misfortune AND then enjoy the results of his actions, but that is not the first thing that comes to my mind. So now we have concepts that are very hard to nail down in two languages, English as well as German, and I suspect the same problem is going to occur in Spanish too.


> Schadenfreude you can have when you see somebody who's in any embarassing situation - "Schadenfreude" is the feeling you have when you watch "You've been framed" ("Bitte lächeln!" in German) - which basically means: without any bad faith.


For me, "malicious glee" would cover that situation. But again, others may or may not agree with me. If not, then you are stuck with a much longer definition that doesn't work very well in English.

Gaer


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## suzzzenn

After reading the response, I can see that moving this thread for a time to the German forum was very helpful. Thank you all for you excellent responses and interesting discussion.  Thank you Who, for checking a German-Spanish dictionary. I hadn't considered gustazo as a translation. 

How would Spanish speakers translate Gustazo into English? Is it always negative? 

Susan


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## Fernando

Me gusta "alegría malsana", como ha indicado Jorge vAL


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## nic456

For your information: I have started a related thread in the English only forum


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## Albpharma

hi ... 

what about this spanish word (verb)....

*Regodearse*


* 3.* prnl. coloq. Complacerse maliciosamente con un percance, apuro, etc., que le ocurre a otra persona.  

I think this verb have the same meaning of _Schadenfreude... _the noun is_ regodeo ....
_
Kisses for everybody


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## belén

Albpharma said:
			
		

> hi ...
> 
> what about this spanish word (verb)....
> 
> *Regodearse*
> 
> 
> * 3.* prnl. coloq. Complacerse maliciosamente con un percance, apuro, etc., que le ocurre a otra persona.
> 
> I think this verb have the same meaning of _Schadenfreude... _the noun is_ regodeo ....
> _
> Kisses for everybody



That could be!
The only thing I wonder is if the level of regodeo is the same as the level of shadenfreunde.
I have the feeling that "regodeo" is usually laughing at or make fun of others misfortunes, more than getting happy about it, in a morbid way...


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## annettehola

The meaning is: MALICE. 
Another way of saying it is: TO GLOAT OVER SMT.
Annette


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## natasha2000

Well... I was looking for this word in order to see what it means at all, and found this thread... You should have only pass to Spanish the link in Wiki provided by someone.

Schadenfreude is schadenfreude in Spanish, too. click

I know that it is too late and I bring back to life a thread that was started almost a year ago, but I had to inform about my discovery....


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## andym

I don't know whether it has this sense in German, but I think 'schadenfreude' is used, at least in UK English, to mean more than delight in someone's misfortune. There has to be an element of the person 'having it coming' or some particular irony. One of the articles that someone linked to gave the example of a Jewish person watching the triumph of Jessie Owens at the Berlin Olympics. That's really schadenfreude. It has a distinct element of 'poetic justice'.

And it isn't the only word imported from German others would be 'ersatz',  and 'kitsch'.


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## cyberpedant

How is Schadenfreude pronounced in English

Just as in German: SHA-den-froy-duh.


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## cubaMania

andym said:


> I don't know whether it has this sense in German, but I think 'schadenfreude' is used, at least in UK English, to mean more than delight in someone's misfortune. There has to be an element of the person 'having it coming' or some particular irony. One of the articles that someone linked to gave the example of a Jewish person watching the triumph of Jessie Owens at the Berlin Olympics. That's really schadenfreude. It has a distinct element of 'poetic justice'.
> 
> And it isn't the only word imported from German others would be 'ersatz', and 'kitsch'.


 
andym, I'm not trying to be difficult here.  Perhaps it is the Atlantic Ocean between us which makes the difference, or maybe it is an individual thing, but for me the nuances of "schadenfreude" are opposite to those you describe.  I think of schadenfreude as being malicious driven by enviousness or jealousy.  Usually it is petty, though it can rise to more serious levels.  A feeling of poetic justice is exactly what I would not apply "shadenfreude" to.


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## natasha2000

cubaMania said:


> andym, I'm not trying to be difficult here. Perhaps it is the Atlantic Ocean between us which makes the difference, or maybe it is an individual thing, but for me the nuances of "schadenfreude" are opposite to those you describe. I think of schadenfreude as being malicious driven by enviousness or jealousy. Usually it is petty, though it can rise to more serious levels. A feeling of poetic justice is exactly what I would not apply "shadenfreude" to.


 
I agree with this. Besides, All anterior posts explain it exactly like this.


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## andym

Well all I can say is that is how it is used here. You would see schadenfraude used here precisely because it conveys something that _isn't_ captured by 'malicious glee' or 'spite'.


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## daviido

*Nueva Pregunta/New question*​
Hi guys, 

I'd like to know how you could say "He has got schadenfreude" in *S*panish.


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## Masood

I don't think we'd use it that way in English.

We might say "He feels a sense of schadenfreude"


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## spodulike

RAE
*regodearse**.*
(De _re-_ y el lat. _gaudĕre_, alegrarse, estar contento).

*1. *prnl. coloq. Deleitarse o complacerse en lo que gusta o se goza, deteniéndose en ello.
*2. *prnl. coloq. Hablar o estar de chacota.
*3. *prnl. coloq. Complacerse maliciosamente con un percance, apuro, etc., que le ocurre a otra persona.


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## wettsponge

http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cg...query=Schadenfreude&iservice=&comment=&email=


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## dj2012

Sí existe. "Regodearse"


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