Last week, Jen Doll compiled a 'Dictionary of Despicable Words.' The German words zeitgeist and schadenfreude didn't make her initial list, but our readers overwhelmingly disdained them. All except for one. 

Duncan Tweedy writes: 

Zeitgeist and schadenfreude are like my German foreign exchange student friends. Don't tell me they have to go back home now? I will miss you guys! I'll never forget you! Don't bother writing though, I don't speak German. Other than the words zeitgeist and schadenfreude anyway.

They will miss you too, Duncan, but like all foreign exhange students, there comes a time when they have to head back to their lives in Germany. And don't worry about them. They're looking forward to compounding with other nouns to form fearsome 20-syllable monsters like this.  

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David Wagner