Crossword clues for jeremiad
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Jeremiad \Jer`e*mi"ad\, Jeremiade \Jer`e*mi"ade\, n. [From Jeremiah, the prophet: cf. F. j['e]r['e]miade.] A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; a dolorous tirade; -- generally used satirically.
He has prolonged his complaint into an endless
jeremiad.
--Lamb.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1780, from French jérémiade (1762), in reference to "Lamentations of Jeremiah" in Old Testament.
Wiktionary
n. A long speech or prose work that bitterly laments the state of society and its morals, and often contains a prophecy of its coming downfall.
WordNet
n. a long and mournful complaint; "a jeremiad against any form of government"
Wikipedia
A jeremiad is a long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in verse, 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.
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" by Jonathan Edwards. 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 and overwrought.
Usage examples of "jeremiad".
Barnes that he ceased a Jeremiad, in the course of which he had abused her, her father, her brother, Irene, Bosinney, the name of Forsyte, his own children, and cursed the day when he had ever married.
Starting from the sinister change in the racing-world-- so plutocratic now, with the American seat, the increase of bookmaking owners, and other tragic occurrences--he launched forth into a jeremiad on the condition of things in general.
In the videos, he prowled the stage like a wary panther, wiping away buckets of sweat with a succession of huge handkerchiefs, his voice ranging from a mild, just-folks West Virginia twang to a lacerating, scornful jeremiad shriek.
Ludicrous uncompensated advances are made to support liberal authors, and liberal jeremiads make it to print without the most cursory fact-checking.
Who cares that the crones and the predikants, using separate sets of words, murmur jeremiads that too much optimism is bad for the soul, and attracts perhaps more attention from God than, strictly speaking, is desirable?
It was only when he saw I was growing very ill that he pardoned me, but he had to be plagued with my jeremiads and the appealing looks of Natacha without end in his own home each time we heard any shooting in the street.
Muscular activity and a liberal imitation of the jeremiads once more subjugated the rebel--and the same rebellion and its suppression in a like manner took place the following morning before breakfast.
He would sit, faintly smiling over pleasant imaginings and dear reminiscences of his own, while battle raged between Edith and her father, or while Sheridan unloosed jeremiads upon the sullen Roscoe, who drank heavily to endure them.
Cousin Masham was read such a jeremiad as must have caused her ears to ring for weeks afterward, and at the end of that confrontation Sarah and the single trunk containing all her worldly possessions reposed within Mrs.
Ludicrous uncompensated advances are made to support liberal authors, and liberal jeremiads make it to print without the most cursory fact-checking.
Muscular activity and a liberal imitation of the jeremiads once more subjugated the rebel--and the same rebellion and its suppression in a like manner took place the following morning before breakfast.