the warnings became jeremiads against the folly of overemphasis on science and technology at the expense of man's subjective and emotional life Ada Louise Huxtable
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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 Jeremiah for a pessimistic person and jeremiad for the way these Jeremiahs carry on. The word jeremiad was borrowed from the French, who coined it as jérémiade.
a jeremiad against the political apathy shown by so many young people
Recent Examples on the WebBuchanan went before a nationwide audience and delivered a startling jeremiad. Joel Mathis, The Week, 14 July 2022 This slim book on the legacies of colonialism has been described variously as a jeremiad and a mock travel guide. Bo Seo, The Atlantic, 1 June 2022 None of this should be read as a jeremiad against difficult, encyclopedic texts—The Books of Jacob is a refreshing reprieve from a ketogenic diet of Iowa realism and Rooneyesque alienation. Jake Bittle, The New Republic, 2 Mar. 2022 The speaker ends her jeremiad, and the only people to clap are the members of Die Linke, isolated in the far-left section of the chamber. Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2021 But the Education is certainly an American jeremiad. Brenda Wineapple, The New York Review of Books, 8 Apr. 2021 After this jeremiad for a nation in crisis, one wonders how Osnos can possibly suggest a way out.Washington Post, 17 Sep. 2021 The speaker ends her jeremiad, and the only people to clap are the members of Die Linke, isolated in the far-left section of the chamber. Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2021 But the Education is certainly an American jeremiad. Brenda Wineapple, The New York Review of Books, 8 Apr. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
French jérémiade, from Jérémie Jeremiah, from Late Latin Jeremias