Word of the Day

: August 24, 2010

jeremiad

noun jair-uh-MYE-ud

What It Means

: a prolonged lamentation or complaint; also : a cautionary or angry harangue

jeremiad in Context

"Siegel's book is a jeremiad against the ills the Internet has visited upon our lives." (Ellen Ullman, The Washington Post, February 10, 2008)

Did You Know?

Jeremiah was a naysayer. That Jewish prophet, who lived from about 650 to 570 BC, spent his days lambasting the Hebrews for their false worship and social injustice and denouncing the king for his selfishness, materialism, and inequities. When not calling on his people to quit their wicked ways, he was lamenting his own lot; a portion of the Old Testament's Book of Jeremiah is devoted to his "confessions," a series of lamentations on the hardships endured by a prophet with an unpopular message. Nowadays, English speakers use "Jeremiah" for a pessimistic person and "jeremiad" for the way these Jeremiahs carry on. The word "jeremiad" was actually borrowed from the French, who coined it as "jérémiade."