Advertisement

Danish word of the day: Skadefryd

The Local Denmark
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
Danish word of the day: Skadefryd

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash and Nicolas Raymond/FlickR

Today's word of the day might be recognisable as a close relative of a popular German loan word.

Advertisement

What is skadefryd?

Skadefryd can be traced to the German word Schadenfreude. The term originated in the 18th century and has no direct English translation or equivalent -- although it is commonly used in modern English as a loan word, so its meaning may not be too surprising.

The German word is a compound of Schaden, meaning (damage/harm) and Freude (joy). The Danish word is exactly the same: skade means harm or injury while fryd is an archaic which means great joy or a feeling of contentment.

Advertisement

While skade is common in modern Danish, fryd has gone out of use -- although you might have come across it in the phrase fryd og gammen, roughly "joy and happiness", which can be found in texts like old-fashioned literature and hymns.

Skadefryd -- like Schadenfreude -- is when you feel joy or satisfaction at somebody else’s misfortunate.

Why do I need to know skadefryd?

It's probably worth knowing that Danish has it's own version of skadefryd, so you don't drop the German version into a conversation like you might in English.

I'm not to sure how often you might be use it though, as it seems a fairly alien in Danish society to take joy from someone else's failures.

For example, feeling glad to find out a colleague you didn’t like has been fired is a good example of skadefryd -- but I've never heard someone openly admitting feeling this way.

Feeling pleasure in smaller misfortunes -- such as laughing at other people falling over -- is perhaps a slightly more likely, if puerile, scenario.

Philosopher Theodor Adorno has defined skadefryd as “mainly unexpected joy at another’s suffering that is noted as everyday and/or appropriate”.

 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also