A literary work or speech expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom.
[French jérémiade, after Jérémie, Jeremiah, author of , from Late Latin Ieremiās. See Jeremiah1.]
jeremiad
Dictionary:
jer·e·mi·ad (jĕr'ə-mī'əd)  |
n.
A literary work or speech expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom.
A literary work or speech expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom.
| Word Overheard: jeremiad |
The prophet would have been proud. The word jeremiad — a speech of lament or censure named for the biblical Jeremiah — has repeatedly been among our top 5 Alt-Clicks.
"In the 1990's, Dr. [James] Dobson in particular became known for his jeremiads against the Republican party, most notably in the months before the 1998 midterm elections."
Link: Conservative Christians Criticize Republicans
Posted May 16, 2006.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words. 
| Thesaurus: jeremiad |
noun
- A long, violent, or blustering speech, usually of censure or denunciation: diatribe, fulmination, harangue, philippic, tirade. See praise/blame.
| Literary Dictionary: jeremiad |
jeremiad
| Obscure Words: jeremiad |
| Wikipedia: Jeremiad |
A jeremiad is a long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in poetry, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and always contains a prophecy of society's imminent downfall.
The word is an eponym, named after the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, and comes from Biblical works attributed to him, the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations. The Book of Jeremiah prophesies the coming downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, and asserts that this is because its rulers have broken the covenant with the Lord.
The Lamentations, similarly, lament the fall of the kingdom of Judah after the conquest prophesied by Jeremiah has occurred:
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.[1]
Generally, the term jeremiad is applied to moralistic texts that denounce a society for its wickedness, and prophesy its downfall. The jeremiad was a favorite literary device of the Puritans especially in sermons like Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Authors from Gildas to Robert Bork have had this label hung on their works. Extending that tradition in a reflective vein is the autobiographical work of freed American slave Frederick Douglass, who lamented the moral corruption that slavery wrought on America - from both a Jeffersonian and Christian tradition. In contemporary usage, it is frequently pejorative, meant to suggest that the tone of the text is excessively pessimistic.
External links
Further readings
- On the Jeremiad against Consumerism: Luedicke, Marius K, Craig J. Thompson and Markus Giesler. 2010. "'Consumption as Moral Protagonism:' How Myth and Ideology Animate a Brand-Mediated Moral Conflict." Journal of Consumer Research. 36 (April): 00.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Jeremiad |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - jeremiade, klagesang
Français (French)
n. - jérémiade
Deutsch (German)
n. - Jeremiade, Wehklage
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) ιερεμιάδα
Português (Portuguese)
n. - lamentação (f), discurso (m) de censura ou denúncia
Русский (Russian)
иеремиада, бесконечные жалобы
Español (Spanish)
n. - jeremiada, lamento prolongado, lamentación
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - jeremiad, klagovisa
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
悲叹, 怨恨, 悲痛话
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 悲歎, 怨恨, 悲痛話
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 비탄 , 하소연, 넋두리, 슬픈 이야기
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) نواح, شكوى وانين
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 | Samuel Hooker (literature) |
| Grindall Rawson (literature) |
| lament |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Word Overheard. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jeremiad". Read more |
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