Displeasure or pain at someone else's good fortune or success.
Displeasure or pain at someone else's good fortune or success — the inverse of Schadenfreude.
The precise mirror of Schadenfreude (pleasure at another's misfortune), and the direct antonym of mudita and firgun/fargin (ungrudging joy in another's success). Narrower than envy (which centers on wanting what the other has) — Gluckschmerz names the negative sting triggered by the other's gain itself.
Assembled from German Glück “luck, good fortune” + Schmerz “pain” = “good-fortune-pain.”
A pseudo-German portmanteau assembled in English from Glück + Schmerz, modeled on Schadenfreude and Weltschmerz.
Popularized in 2010s English-language psychology writing (e.g. Richard H. Smith) and a 2015 Wall Street Journal column as the convenient “opposite of Schadenfreude.”
NOT a genuine standard-German word — it appears in no German dictionary (psychologist Richard Smith: “You won't find it in any German dictionary”). The authentic German term for the concept is Missgunst. A literal German parse of Glückschmerz would more naturally mean pain at one's OWN good fortune. A sometimes-cited attribution to author Tim Krabbé is unverified.