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For many years the word fribbly has been used in various communities as the antonym of Schadenfreude.

Rather than harm-joy or "pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others". Fribbly is "Joy-Joy" or the "pleasure derived from the pleasure of others"; however, when I look in Websters the definition is "to trifle or fool away"

It is in common currency in a wide variety of diverse sexual communities.[citation required] It's often used in the polyamrous communities to describe the pleasure or frisson one feels when ones partner is enjoying themselves with another partner. But it equally has been used to describe the frisson - the joy one feels when someone else is feeling joy/pleasure

  • Does anyone know where this new usage started and when?

  • This is a common human experience, something that anyone who isn't a psychopath feels, are there other words I have missed that also describe the same feeling?

tchrist
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Big kate
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    I've never, ever heard the word, Kate. I suspect that you have probably heard one or two people use it and you're thinking it is a common word? Perhaps just delete it from your question and just ask "What is an antonynm of Schadenfreude?| – Fattie Aug 15 '14 at 10:36
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    Actually good news - your question is a duplicate, http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/61008 let's close this question – Fattie Aug 15 '14 at 10:37
  • possible duplicate of What's the antonym for Schadenfreude? – Fattie Aug 15 '14 at 10:37
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    Fribbly doesn't occur in OED, although fribble does ("something frivolous"). Fribbly does occur in Urban Dictionary ("suitable for any time you cannot think of a word for the situation. Usually describes something negatively.") Neither lists it as an antonym of schadenfreude, and I would have expected UD at least to mention it. Of course, now that I've noted that it doesn't, no doubt that usage will appear in due course. – Andrew Leach Aug 15 '14 at 10:50
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    Please can you link to uses of the word so that we might be better placed to look up its etymology? – Matt E. Эллен Aug 15 '14 at 10:51
  • This would be a terrible antonym if it existed - the 'ly' ending doesn't go well with nouns. – Oldcat Aug 15 '14 at 19:03
  • Besides, the true opposite would be sorrow in another's joy. – Oldcat Aug 15 '14 at 20:32
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    I note that, in Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary, the transitive verb that means "to trifle or fool away" and the intransitive verb that means "trifle" and that archaically meant "dodder" are spelled fribble, not fribbly. The Eleventh Collegiate doesn't have an entry for fribbly, and neither does MW Online. The latter does have an entry for fribby, but that word is an adjective meaning "SMALL, SHORT—used of locks of wool," and it comes from the noun frib ("a short small dirty lock of wool"). – Sven Yargs Sep 22 '14 at 06:07
  • @Oldcat -ly is found in a few nouns, though it is usually there a stem that ends in an l followed by a suffix -y (often from Old French -ie, as in folly). A fribbly would be a perfectly cromulent noun to form from a root fribbl-. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 29 '14 at 08:53
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's based on a false premise (that "fribbly" is a word which enjoys any currency outside the OP's personal experience or promotion). – Dan Bron Dec 20 '16 at 23:27

1 Answers1

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Q. Does anyone know where this new usage started and when?

I've never heard it before. This looks like a very new word with only one user.

  • Searching Google for fribbly and Schadenfreude gives only eight results (Google also "omitted some entries very similar to the 8 already displayed"):

    1. this 15th August 2014 question
    2. a 14th May 2015 post by Kallh on the Wordcraft Community Home Page, that links back to this question, and where no-one had heard of it before (and the OP said: "I agree, however, that it's wrong. Does anyone know anything about that English Language & Usage site? Is it bogus?")
    3. A 15th August 2014 post by Big Kate (that is, you) on oxford-hackspace
    4. Another page that just links back here
    5. Another page that just links back here
    6. A clone of this question
    7. A clone of this question
    8. A clone of this question

  • There's no results at OneLook ("No word is too obscure: More than 19 million words in more than 1000 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook® search engine").

  • There's no results at Google Books or Google News.

  • Google Groups has the one post by Big Kate on oxford-hackspace, as above.

  • There's no results at Chronicling America archive of historical newspapers.

Q. This is a common human experience, something that anyone who isn't a psychopath feels, are there other words I have missed that also describe the same feeling?

The antonym of Schadenfreude has been asked for before. Answers include Mitgefühl, mudita, goodwill and graciousness.

Community
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Hugo
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