Uh-oh. Your credit card’s missing. As you frantically search for it, your mind fast-forwards through the bad things that could happen if it’s been stolen. Then, to your enormous relief, you find the card. Is there a specific word for the immense relief you feel when something you’ve dreaded doesn’t happen? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Immense Relief”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Richard calling from Escondido.
Hiya, Richard. How are you?
Well, thank you.
What’s up?
Well, I’ve been looking for a special word, something like schadenfreude, which we use in English, taken from the German, to express the joy or glee in somebody else’s misfortune, but that’s not what I’m looking for.
Oh, good.
I’m looking for a word that expresses the joy you feel after you’ve expected something bad to happen but it doesn’t happen or something has happened and then you get over it.
Like when my passport was missing just on the eve of an international trip and I thought, what am I going to do? And then all of a sudden it was overseas and somebody returned it to my hotel. I apparently dropped my passport. And you just feel so great that you’re almost happy that it happened.
Right, exactly.
Because you feel so good and so relieved afterwards.
I know that both in the military and we were in Foreign Service, you wait for an assignment to come, and you’re hoping for a good assignment, and you’re sort of expecting the worst, and then all of a sudden the good one comes through, and it just sort of takes over your whole body. You feel so good.
Yeah, so is there a specific word for that along the lines of schadenfreude, but something that specific and that poetic?
I called a friend in Swaziland where I served and said, in Siswati, is there any such expression? And she thought about it for a while and asked her kids, and then they came back with the idea. They have an expression, Lipume Nembovu in Siswati. And I thought, well, that sounds interesting. What does it mean?
And so she told me. It actually means the boil has burst. It’s a relief you feel after something like that.
Oh, my goodness. That’s great.
Let me ask you why the word relief itself isn’t enough.
Well, it’s more than just relief. I mean, to me, it seems to me. I mean, it’s actually… What about deliverance?
Deliverance?
Delivered from your fears.
Yeah, that’s… Deliverance from something you expected that was bad.
That’s a good idea. And you would think that we would have borrowed some kind of German or French word. You’d expect the Germans to have put together a couple of words. I just thought you might join the two words joy relief or relief joy.
Well, the joy is freude. So I guess if you find your passport after all that time, it’s findin’ freude. What do you think about that?
Findin’ freude sounds good to me.
It feels as though there should be some kind of very specific word for this.
I’m sure you know the feeling.
Of course I know the feeling. When you said glee earlier, I was thinking of, well, maybe glee leaf or deja vu.
That’s a good one.
Anyway, I thought I’d call the verbavores to throw out the problem, and maybe somebody else will come up with an idea. And I get the feeling that you’re not having this feeling during this call yet. You’re not feeling the massive relief of getting an answer.
Probably when it’s over, I’ll feel more relief.
Yeah, most of our callers feel that way.
But I’ve been a fan of yours ever since you took over the show.
Oh, well, Richard, it’s a pleasure speaking with you.
Well, thank you so much, Richard. That’s nice to hear.
Okay.
I hope we can come up with an answer for you. We’ll put the word out to the community. We’ll put it in the e-mail newsletter, post it on the discussion forum, and see what we can come up with.
I look at the e-mail newsletter quite regularly.
Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you, Richard.
Thank you, guys.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Do you like the bursting boil, Grant?
I do. Like, it’s a little gross, but it kind of really summarizes the, well, bursting a boil is a little bit of a tempting thing anyway, right? It’s sitting there pulsing on your skin, and the bubble is taut, right? And you feel like you need to pierce it. And once you’ve pierced it, there’s a great deal of relief. It’s like scratching an itch under a, you know, under a, never mind.
Right, depressants.
Depressants, that’s the word.
Something like that.
Okay, folks, obviously, we need a better word. Call us 1-877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
