Dictionary Definition
jeremiad n : a long and mournful complaint; "a
jeremiad against any form of government"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From jérémiade < Jérémie < Ieremias < ירמיה. Jeremiah was a biblical prophet who lamented the moral state of Judah and predicted her downfall.Pronunciation
- /ˌdʒɛr.əˈmaɪ.əd/
- Rhymes with: -aɪəd
Noun
Quotations
- 1895 — Mary Gaunt,
The
Moving Finger,
A Digger's Christmas
- "Father Maguire," he said in the broadest of Cork brogues, without the ghost of a smile on his grave Irish face, "is it a song yez wantin'? Well, thin, it's just a jeremiad I 'd be singin' yez, an' not another song at all, at all."
- 2006: The Columbus Dispatch, May 5
- “This is precisely the manner of Balkanization that Schlesinger cautioned us about in his prescient jeremiad on multiculturalism, The Disuniting of America.”
- 2007, The Guardian, http://film.guardian.co.uk/cannes2007/story/0,,2083430,00.html
- Cannes is smacking its lips in anticipation of filmmaker and provocateur Michael Moore's latest jeremiad against the US administration, which receives its premiere at the film festival today.
Synonyms
Translations
- Finnish: valitusvirsi, vuodatus, jeremiadi
- Norwegian: jeremiade, klagesang
- Polish: jeremiada
- Spanish: jeremiada
- Swedish: jeremiad, klagovisa
Extensive Definition
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 is inspired by the tone of his surviving literary works, 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:
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my
voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my
people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that
it may be well unto you.But they hearkened not, nor inclined their
ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their
evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.Since the day that
your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I
have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising
up early and sending them:Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor
inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than
their fathers.Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them;
but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them;
but they will not answer thee.But thou shalt say unto them, This is
a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor
receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their
mouth.
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.
As such, the name jeremiad, in the sense of a
dolorous tirade, is given
to moralistic texts that denounce a society for its wickedness, and
prophesy its downfall. Authors from Gildas to Robert Bork
have had this label hung on their works. In contemporary usage, it
is frequently pejorative, meant to suggest
that the tone of the text is excessively pessimistic.
References
External links
Jeremiad in Russian: Иеремиада