Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude is pleasure taken in someone else's misfortune — a completely ordinary German word that English borrowed and made exotic.
Full definition of Schadenfreude →:: COMPARE ::
SchadenfreudevsMitfreude
The short answer
Mitfreude — 'joy-with' — is the real German antonym, and it's a genuine dictionary word with citations back to the 1950s. Schadenfreude gets all the English attention precisely because English borrowed the vice and left the virtue sitting on the shelf.
Side by side
| Aspect | Schadenfreude | Mitfreude |
|---|---|---|
| Joy at | Their misfortune | Their good fortune |
| In German | Common | Real, less common |
| Borrowed by English | Enthusiastically | Never |
| Duden label | None | None |
What each one means
Mitfreude
The contrast above sets out how Mitfreude differs from Schadenfreude on the points that actually matter.