epicaricacy

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Rejoicing at or deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others.

Pronunciation

/ˌɛpɪˈkæɹɪkəsi/ Epicaricacy Pronunciation.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-epicaricacy.wav

Word forms

epicaricacy epicharicacy

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἐπιχαιρεκακία (epikhairekakía, “joy upon evil”). The word appears in most of the editions of Nathaniel Bailey's dictionary and many dictionaries that came after. Linguist Joseph T. Shipley included it in his Dictionary of Early English (1963), citing Bailey. Evidence of actual usage seems scant until it was picked up by various "interesting word" websites around the turn of the twenty-first century.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.