glee

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Great joy or delight, often at one's own luck or another's misfortune.

   The children shouted with glee when they saw the snow.

2. 2
   noun

   Satisfaction taken in something bad happening to someone else.

   He told the story of his rival's failure with obvious glee.

From Middle English gle, from Old English glēo, glīġ, glēow, glīw (“glee, pleasure, mirth, play, sport; music; mockery”), from Proto-West Germanic *glīw, from Proto-Germanic *glīwą (“joy, mirth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlew- (“to joke, make fun, enjoy”). Cognate with Scots gle, glie, glew (“game, play, sport, mirth, joy, rejoicing, entertainment, melody, music”), Icelandic glý (“joy, glee, gladness”), Ancient Greek χλεύη (khleúē, “joke, jest, scorn”). A poetic word in Middle English, the word was obsolete by 1500, but revived late 18c.

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