To the best of my knowledge it was first cited in Nathaniel Bailey’s “Universal Etymological English Dictionary,” published in 1727 and going through 20-22 editions. Bailey spelled it “Epicharikaky” – A joy at the misfortunes of others. The etymology is from the Greek epi (upon) + chara (joy) + kakon (evil). It has been published in a variety of specialty books from Novobatzy and Shea’s “Depraved and Insulting English” to 4 online dictionaries cited in Onelook. It appears in Mrs. Byrne’s dictionary, a Dickson dictionary of obscure words and perhaps in Shipley’s “Dictionary of Early English.” In consulting with Ammon Shea, he says: “I’m hardly a scholar in such matters but I would say that the words in Bailey’s Dictionary are rarely hapax, imaginary or inkhorns. Although he compiled his dictionary shortly after the inkhorn craze of Phillips, Blount and Bullokar he seems to have taken a somewhat more grounded approach to compiling his word list and would see no reason to doubt the authenticity of the word.”

While Google hits hardly authenticate words, there are over 700 Ghits for “epicaricacy,” and we’ve mentioned it on Wordcraft 256 times…though the latter may be because of me!

I’d just like to know what really happened to to this word.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1003746,00.html

“McPhee, the Pulitzer-prizewinning author of Annals of the Former World, performs a series of virtuosic variations on the theme of shad, including its role in history, its heroic migratory habits–a single shad can travel 10,000 miles in its lifetime–and the author’s sometimes excruciating attempts to catch the fish. “There is a God,” he writes, gazing wistfully at his shadless line, “a God who knows what He is looking at and enjoys making decisions.” (The emotion you’re feeling right now is shad-enfreude.)”