Now that you’ve annoyed everybody over the age of 30 by using Gammelfleisch in their presence, you might like to join in the increasing uptake of another German word.

The Financial Times tells us of the bullish market conditions for the word Schadenfreude :

Usage of the word among Britain’s national newsprint media is up 29 per cent this year with 543 mentions in the period to December 15, compared with 422 in the same period in 2007; in the US news media it has risen 30 per cent (223 against 171).

For the life of me, I just cannot understand why.



Outside Edge: An über language for the Zeitgeist