Schadenfreuden.

1852 R. C. Trench Study of Words (ed. 3) ii. 29 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; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more than one such a word is found... In the Greek ἐπιχαιρεκακία, in the German, ‘Schadenfreude’.

1867 T. Carlyle Shooting Niagara iii. 12 Have not I a kind of secret satisfaction, of the malicious or even of the judiciary kind (schadenfreude, ‘mischief-joy’, the Germans call it, but really it is justice-joy withal), that he they call ‘Dizzy’ is to do it.]

1895 C. Lowe German Emperor William II ix. 256 But the Schadenfreude, or malicious joy, of the French was premature.

1901 Q. Rev. 193 316 Sometimes it [sc. Queen Victoria's smile] would be coyly negative, leading the speaker on, the lips slightly opened, with a suggestion of kindly fun, even of a little innocent Schadenfreude.

1902 Contemp. Rev. May 662 I am persuaded that what (no doubt by a slip of undesigned candour) is described in the recent Life of Claude Bernard by an eminent English physiologist as the ‘Joys of the Laboratory’, are very real ‘joys’ to the vivisector; that is, Schadenfreude,—Pleasure in the Pain he witnesses and creates.

1902 C. Hague tr. F. C. Brentano Origin Knowl. Right & Wrong 85 Pleasure at the misfortunes of others (Schadenfreude) is bad on the first ground.

1920 F. Hamilton Days before Yesterday iv. 118 The particular sentiment described in German as ‘schadenfreude’ ‘pleasure over another's troubles’ (how characteristic it is that there should be no equivalent in any other language for this peculiarly Teutonic emotion!) makes but little appeal to the average Briton except where questions of age and of failing powers come into play.

1922 Glasgow Herald 6 May 9 You may buy a hat for 500 marks to-day, and it may be worth 700 marks to-morrow. So you..perhaps, will feel a little of schadenfreude at the expense of the vendor who sold it to you a day too soon.

1927 Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 12/2 The ‘Schadenfreude’ so openly exhibited by a large section of her Press over our difficulties in China.

1939 Palestine Post 31 Aug. 6/3 There appears to be a certain amount of ‘Schadenfreude’ in London..at Germany's failure to get the German–Soviet Pact ratified.

1947 W. H. Auden Age of Anxiety (1948) i. 14 The Schadenfreude of cooks at keyholes.

1974 K. Clark Another Part of Wood i. 8 Arthur Rackham..certainly had a vein of schadenfreude (what is now misleadingly described as sadism) and took an intense delight in scraggy fingers.

1977 ‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon iv. 62 Solidarity or no solidarity, Widger was not wholly without Schadenfreude at seeing his informative colleague discomfited for once.

1978 ‘A. Stuart’ Vicious Circles 15 For a Russian..there is a curious fascination, mixed with Schadenfreude, about..titles and honours lists.