To grant or allow someone something gladly.
To grant or allow someone something gladly; to not begrudge another their good fortune, but be genuinely happy for them. Also reflexively, to allow oneself a treat (“gönn dir”).
The positive counterpart to envy: where envy resents another's good fortune, gönnen affirms it without reservation. It overlaps Hebrew firgun — which derives from this very verb (German vergönnen → Yiddish farginen → Hebrew firgun) — and is close to Buddhist mudita, but is an everyday German verb of disposition rather than a cultivated virtue. Often used ironically, hinting at the begrudging it negates.
A simple verb stem meaning “to grant / not begrudge”; same Germanic root as English own and the prefixed begrudging forms vergönnen / missgönnen.
From Old High German giunnan, from unnan, from Proto-Germanic *unnaną “to grant, be favorable to.” Cognate with Dutch gunnen and Yiddish farginen.
The prefixed vergönnen (“to grant”) is the etymological ancestor of Hebrew firgun, which entered Hebrew via Yiddish farginen in the 1970s. Notably the Yiddish form was often used negatively (to begrudge), while Hebrew firgun took the positive sense — so the family spans both poles. The colloquial “gönn dir” (“treat yourself”) is a popular modern phrase.