Today's Word "Jeremiad"
Published in Vocabulary
jeremiad \je-reh-MI-aed\ (noun) - An extended lamentation; a long, drawn-out complaining tirade, often accompanied by a prophecy or insinuation of imminent doom.
"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!"
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 yirmeyahu "Yahweh has established," based on yirm "he has established" + yah(u), a shortening of "Yahweh." "Yirm" is an old preterit of rama "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 oeliyahu "my God (is) Yahweh;" John, Jean, Johann, Giovanni, and Ivan are all from yohanan "Yahweh has been gracious," Joshua is from yehoshua' "Yahweh (is) salvation" (*shua' = "salvantion"), and "Jesus," Hebrew yeshua', is a shortening of yehoshua' "Joshua."
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