It's the word of the day for March 4th.

Today's word is Shadenfreude, spelled S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E.

Shadenfreude is a noun. It refers to a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people. Here's the word used in a sentence from

the Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Massachusetts. In 1995, Sox fans were overjoyed to see the Yankees get knocked out of the playoffs in a thrilling

divisional series. It was Boston Schadenfreude to be sure. Ever a popular look-up on our site,

the word Schadenfreude refers to the joy you might feel at another person's pain. It's a compound of the German

nouns, Shaden, meaning damage, and Freuda, meaning joy. Shadenfreude was a favored subject in

Germany by the time it was introduced to English in the mid-1800s. Discussed by the likes

of Schopenhauer, Kant, and Nietzsche,

Schadenfreude was showing up in psychology books,

literature for children, and critical theory.

In English, the word was used mostly by academics

until the early 1990s, when it was introduced

to more general audiences via pop culture.

In a 1991 episode of The Simpsons, for example,

Lisa explains Schadenfreude to Homer,

who is gloating at his neighbor's failure.

She also tells him that the opposite of Schadenfreude is sour grapes.

Boy, he marvels, those Germans have a word for everything. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Salkovsk. Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and

trending word lookups.