(dīˈə-trībˌ)
noun A bitter, abusive denunciation.
Word History: Listening to a lengthy diatribe may seem like a waste of time, an attitude for which there is some etymological justification. The Greek word
diatribē, the ultimate source of our word, is derived from the verb
diatrībein, made up of the prefix
dia-, “completely,” and
trībein, “to rub,” “to wear away, spend, or waste time,” “to be busy.” The verb
diatrībein meant “to rub hard,” “to spend or waste time,” and the noun
diatribē meant “wearing away of time, amusement, serious occupation, study,” as well as “discourse, short ethical treatise or lecture, debate, argument.” It is the serious occupation of time in discourse, lecture, and debate that gave us the first use of
diatribe recorded in English (1581), in the now archaic sense “discourse, critical dissertation.” The critical element of this kind of diatribe must often have been uppermost, explaining the origin of the current sense of
diatribe, “a bitter criticism.”
