jeremiad

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 27, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>jeremiad</strong> &#149; \jair-uh-MYE-ud\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> a prolonged <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lamentation">lamentation</a> or complaint; <em>also</em> <strong>:</strong> a cautionary or angry <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harangue#h1">harangue</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>The news story was a scathing <em>jeremiad</em> against the invasion of privacy on celebrities.</p> <p>"We can expect a volley of <em>jeremiads</em> against wind power, as perhaps half that fleet stopped spinning. But with perhaps more than 30 gigawatts of thermal generating capacity tripping offline, and wind power producing about five gigawatts less than planned, this disaster clearly stretches, as Texas' grid operator said, 'across fuel types.'" — Liam Denning, <em>The St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press</em>, 18 Feb. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Jeremiah was a Jewish prophet, who lived from about 650 to 570 B.C. and 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 biblical 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 <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Jeremiah">Jeremiah</a></em> for a pessimistic person and <em>jeremiad</em> for the way these Jeremiahs carry on. The word <em>jeremiad</em> was borrowed from the French, who coined it as <em>jérémiade</em>.</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>