diatribe
pronunciation
How to pronounce diatribe in British English:
UK [ˈdaɪətraɪb]
How to pronounce diatribe in American English:
US [ˈdaɪəˌtraɪb]
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- Noun:
- thunderous verbal attack
Word Origin
- diatribe
- diatribe: [16] Diatribe’s connotations of acrimoniousness and abusiveness are a relatively recent (19th-century) development. Originally in English it meant simply ‘learned discourse or disquisition’. It comes via Latin diatriba from Greek diatribé ‘that which passes, or literally wears away, the time’, and hence, in scholarly circles, ‘study’ or ‘discourse’. This was a derivative of diatribein ‘pass, waste, while away’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dia- and tríbein ‘rub’.=> attrition, detriment, trite
- diatribe (n.)
- 1640s (in Latin form in English from 1580s), "discourse, critical dissertation," from French diatribe (15c.), from Latin diatriba "learned discussion," from Greek diatribe "employment, study," in Plato, "discourse," literally "a wearing away (of time)," from dia- "away" (see dia-) + tribein "to wear, rub," from PIE root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn, twist" (see throw (v.)). Sense of "invective" is 1804, apparently from French.
Example
- 1. At times it is little more than a self-serving diatribe .
- 2. Once summoned , shady delivers the funniest diatribe in recent rap history .
- 3. He launched a bitter diatribe against the younger generation .
- 4. The blogger who started off the diatribe wrote a post attacking me publicly .
- 5. In his reply , hitler spouted an antisemitic diatribe , in which he said jews were " pure materialists in thought and aspirations " and that their effect was " racial tuberculosis on the nation " .