Dear wwh,

Schadenfreude--that's it. Thanks. I was making the first syllable more complicated than it is.

Whether it't just mischievousness or not, I'm not sure. From some of what I remember reading about schadenfreude, I've gotten the impression that it could be a rather serious psychological state. An enemy suffers loss; the opposing enemy feels genuine joy. This would be removed from sadism in that the one experiencing the joy wouldn't necessarily have caused the suffering of the sufferer. But that joy over suffering would be schadenfreude. That's been my understanding up to this point. Now I'm wondering whether I've been incorrect and that schadenfreude is just mischief. I'll go back and reread the thread to see whether anybody else commented.

Anyway, thanks, wwh, for the spelling. And for your mischief, too!

WW

Edit: Oh, OK. I just read what belligerentyouth wrote--"malicious joy"--and that's more in line with what I'd understood schadenfreude to be. Probably its broad range of application would run from mischief making through serious suffering.