Pronunciation: [je-rê-'mI-æd] Listen

Definition: An extended lamentation; a long, drawn-out complaining tirade, often accompanied by a prophecy or insinuation of imminent doom.

Usage: One could write a jeremiad about this word itself, a poor lexical orphan without siblings or off-spring and whose parents lie far away in the Middle East (see Etymology). However, the etymology will prove its lineage heavenly and no cause for lament.

Suggested Usage: Today's Biblical word works even in a commoner's home: "Every time I ask you to clean the garage all I hear is a jeremiad on how much easier your sister's lot is than yours!" However, the word tends to be more at home in conversations on loftier topics: "I grow a bit weary of the jeremiads against progress and modernity that pervade contemporary European and American literature."

Etymology: From Jeremiah + -ad (as in "Iliad") in reference to the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. Jeremiah comes from Late Latin "Ieremias," borrowed from Hebrew yirmêyahû "Yahweh has established," based on yirm "he has established" + yah(u), a shortening of "Yahweh." "Yirm" is an old preterit of ramâ "to establish, cast" based on the root *rmy. Yahweh "God, The Lord" is based on the root *hwy, which meant "to be or become," perhaps originally meaning "he who brings into being." Shortenings of "Yahweh" occur in many Hebrew names: Matthew is from mattayyah from *mattan-yah "gift of Yahweh;" Elijah is from Hebrew oelîyahû "my God (is) Yahweh;" John, Jean, Johann, Giovanni, and Ivan are all from yôhanan "Yahweh has been gracious," Joshua is from yehôshûa' "Yahweh (is) salvation" (*shûa' = "salvantion"), and "Jesus," Hebrew yeshûa', is a shortening of yehôshûa' "Joshua."