schadenfreude

****************************************************************
You may swim this summer, but is the past tense "swum" or 
"swam?" Check out our Concise Dictionary of English Usage.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?conusg.htm&6
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for July 19 is:

schadenfreude   \SHAH-dun-froy-duh\   noun, often capitalized 
     : enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others 

Example sentence: 
     "There is simply no higher level of schadenfreude than when the rich or 
famous stumble." (John Gonzalez, _Boston Magazine_, August 2005)

Did you know? 
     "Schadenfreude" is a compound of the German nouns "Schaden," meaning 
"damage" or "harm," and "Freude," meaning "joy," so it makes sense that 
"schadenfreude" means joy over some harm or misfortune suffered by another. 
"What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of 
the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others," wrote Richard Trench 
of Dublin, an archbishop with literary predilections, of the German 
"Schadenfreude" in 1852; perhaps it was just as well he didn't live to see the 
word embraced by English speakers before the century was out.





You Are Subscribed As: GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe, change your e-mail address or to subscribe to the html
version of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, featuring audio
pronunciations, please visit:

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml

(c) 2006 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal Street
P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102

*mf mwt 071906 GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx mf*

---
You are currently subscribed to mw-text as: GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
leave-mw-text-979910Y@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx