þórðargleði

Icelandic

Etymology

From Þórður (“Þórður, an Icelandic male given name”) +‎ gleði (“joy, happiness”), literally “joy of Þórður”. It was coined by reverend Árni Þórarinsson (1860–1948) to describe an event in which Þórður, one of his parishioners, laughed at the poor fortune of the people living in the North of Iceland who had suffered hay rot due to excessive raining that summer.

Although the word Þórður is a proper name and is capitalized the compound word þórðargleði is not.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθourðarklɛːðɪ/

Noun

þórðargleði f (genitive singular þórðargleði, no plural)

1. schadenfreude (malicious enjoyment of another person's suffering)

   Synonyms: meinfýsi, hlakka yfir

Declension

Declension of þórðargleði (sg-only feminine)

	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	þórðargleði	þórðargleðin
accusative	þórðargleði	þórðargleðina
dative	þórðargleði	þórðargleðinni
genitive	þórðargleði	þórðargleðinnar

Further reading

• “þórðargleði” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)