Tuesday, April 7, 2015

What is the antonym of schadenfreude?

So today I was wondering, what is the antonym of schadenfreude?

What word means basically, happiness at the happiness of others? It had never occurred to me, that I did not have that word in my vocabulary.  The closest I could find on the interwebs was "mitfreude" or shared happiness. Mudita comes close, sanskrit for joy; especially sympathetic or vicarious joy. Also the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being.

There has to be a English word that refers to the pure joy of seeing someone else succeed, do well, be happy, etc, without any ulterior motive of personal gain.

After posting this, a poly friend suggested a word they had made up within the community for this: compersion.

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