Words & WritingGreek → English
Diatribe
/ˈdaɪətraɪb/noun
A long, angry piece of speech or writing attacking someone or something.
The Greek roots
διά
diá
through, across
τρίβω
tríbō
to rub, wear away
Literally: “a wearing away of time”
The story of the word
In Greek a διατριβή was a way of passing time, then a course of study, then a philosophical lecture; the discourses of Epictetus are Διατριβαί. Literally it is a rubbing away, of time rather than of the audience. English borrowed it in the 1580s still meaning a discourse, and only around 1800 did it curdle into a harangue. The same τρίβω gave tribology, coined in 1966 for the science of friction and wear.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 1580s
Same family
tribologydialoguediagnosisdiameter
In a sentence
What began as a question from the floor turned into a nine-minute diatribe about parking.
The review is less a review than a diatribe against the whole genre.