WOTY candidate: schadenfreude

[Amy West]

But the beauty of "Spitzenfreude" over
"blondenfreude" or "Bushenfreude" is that it's
another Germanic root. It's almost a seamless
alteration. I really like it. Frankenfreude is
pretty good, too.

---Amy West

>Date:    Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:53:16 -0400
>From:    Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject: Re: WOTY candidate: schadenfreude
>
>On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 6:12 PM, JAMES A. LANDAU wrote:
>>
>>
>>  WOTY candidate: "schadenfreude".  It's been
>>around for a while (MWCD10 says 1895) but in the
>>  last month it has emerged from obscurity into
>>numerous news stories. (about 1,250,000 hits on
>>  Google) In fact I even found a pun on the word:
>>
>>  http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10961825
>>
>>  "It is hardly surprising, then, that the
>>country is enjoying a fit of Spitzenfreudeóand
>>that
>>  Wall Street's trading floors are decorated
>>with photoshopped pictures of him cavorting with
>>  bodacious babes in various states of undress.
>>Some people have even attributed the
>>  markets' mid-week bounce to glee over Mr
>>Spitzer, rather than to the $200 billion
>>shovelled
>>  their way by the Fed."
>
>Xenfreude (where X = a politician's name) is hardly a new innovation.
>See my Language Log post mentioning Bushenfreude, Deanenfreude,
>Frankenfreude, etc.:
>
>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003994.html

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