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Fargin

פֿאַרגינען · far-GIN · Yiddish · verb
positiveintensity: mediumjoytrust

To wholeheartedly and ungrudgingly approve of, or take genuine pleasure in, another person's good fortune.

Definition

To wholeheartedly and ungrudgingly approve of, or take genuine pleasure in, another person's good fortune — to not begrudge but celebrate their success.

Connotation & usage

The Yiddish verb from which Modern Hebrew firgun derives, and the cognate of German gönnen/vergönnen — but warmer and more communal in its Ashkenazi connotation. Unlike Buddhist mudita (a meditative virtue), fargin is an everyday relational act of not-begrudging; unlike naches (reflected pride in a loved one's achievement), it is the act of ungrudgingly granting another, often a peer, their good. The exact positive antonym of Gluckschmerz.

Literal sense

From Yiddish farginen “to not begrudge, to grant willingly.”

Related words

Etymology

Yiddish פֿאַרגינען (farginen), cognate of German vergönnen “to grant, not begrudge,” from the Germanic verb underlying gönnen.

How it has changed

Documented as a Yiddishism in American English (Steinmetz, 1986); Hebrew firgun is a modern (1970s) borrowing of this very verb.

Dispute & caveat

The respelling “faygin” is informal/non-standard; the attested forms are fargin / farginen. The hard-g pronunciation is correct (unrelated to the soft-g literary name Fagin).

Sources

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From The Lexicon of Feeling — a carefully sourced dictionary & thesaurus of emotions across 60 languages. Definitions are verified against the cited sources; emotion-family, valence, and intensity tags are editorial. This is a learning tool for emotional vocabulary, not therapy or a substitute for professional care. © 2026 The Lexicon of Feeling.