Schadenfreude is a loan word from German that means pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. I’m wondering if there’s an equally German way to say “pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others that resemble those you have experienced in the past”. In other words, the feeling of “Now you know what I went through! :)” Ideally in some way that can be mushed together into a single compound word, much like Schadenfreude is formed from the words for harm and joy.
Assuming Germans don’t already have a word for this, I’m fine with us inventing a new word that captures the idea, but I’d like it to be made of German roots, because that makes it so much more fun to say.
There is no such word. I can’t think of one that doesn’t sound completely contrived. It would certainly be very complicated, because there is no word that means “misfortune that one went through oneself”.
Nice idea, though, I’m sure with some creativity you could come up with one.
However my knowledge of German comes entirely from Google Translate, so I have no idea if these are at all grammatically correct or if they’re suggestive of the right idea. (In particular, it needs to be the Schaden that’s familiar/remembered/whatever, not the Schadenfreude).
Mitleid (Mitt-light, sort of) is sympathy, so the compound word could be construed as “[my] joy that you now have reason to sympathize with this sort of misfortune.” Mitleid is literally an expression of shared sorrow, so while the new word isn’t perfect, it’s the best I can think of.
Mitleid and Schadenfreude would typically be considered polar opposites of one another, though. Not that I can really think of anything better… Perhaps ‘Geteiltschadenfreude’, joy (Freude) based on harm (Schaden) that is now shared (geteilt).
