Epicaricacy

//ˌɛpɪˈkæɹɪkəsi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Rejoicing at or deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others. rare, uncountable

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.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.