harangue

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

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🗓️ 19 January 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2024 is:

harangue • \huh-RANG\ • noun

A harangue is a forceful or angry speech or piece of writing.

// After watching the popular documentary, he delivered a long harangue about the dangers of social media.

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Examples:

'"HBO’s 'The Young Pope” … is a visually sublime but textually ridiculous horror tale in which the monster is the pontiff himself. …[H]is first public address is not the warm greeting the crowd in St. Peter’s Square hopes for, but a terrifying harangue. 'You have forgotten God!' he raves, declaring that his papacy will abandon the feel-good rhetoric of reaching out to one’s fellow man." — James Poniewozik, The New York Times, 12 Jan. 2017

Did you know?

In Old Italian, the verb aringare meant "to speak in public," the noun aringo referred to a public assembly, and the noun aringa referred to a public speech. Aringa was borrowed into Middle French as arenge, and it is from this form that we get our noun harangue, which made its first appearance in English in the 16th century with that same "public speech" meaning. Perhaps due to the bombastic or exasperated nature of some public speeches, the term quickly developed an added sense referring to a forceful or angry speech or piece of writing, making it a synonym of rant. By the mid-17th century, the verb harangue made it possible to harangue others with such speech or writing.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for January 19th.
0:10.0	Today's word is H-A-R-A-N-G-U-E-H-E-H-R-A-N-G-E-H-R-A-N-G-E-H-N-E, harangue-A-N-N-A-R-N-G-E, harangue-A-N-A-N-G-E, a haryang is a noun. A-R-N-A-N-N-N-G is a angry speech or piece of writing. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Washington Post by
0:25.0	Dave Kindy. At first the English caricaturist drew Napoleon as normal-sized, but with distinctly unpleasant features.
0:34.0	However, just before war was declared between the two countries in 1803,
0:39.0	English Ambassador Lord Whitworth was subjected to vitriolic public harangue by the French leader.
0:45.7	That's when James Gilray kicked it into high gear.
0:48.7	His next editorial cartoon of Napoleon depicted him as an upset child kicking over furniture and throwing papers.
0:56.7	In old Italian, the verb Aringade meant to speak in public.
1:01.7	The noun Arringo referred to a public assembly and the noun Arringa
1:06.1	referred to a public speech. Arringa was borrowed into middle French as Arangge and it is from this form that we get our noun harangue, which made its
1:17.0	first appearance in English in the 16th century with that same public speech meaning.
1:22.0	Perhaps due to the bombastic or exasperated nature of some public speeches,
1:27.0	the term quickly developed an added sense referring to speech or writing in the style of a rant,
1:32.0	though the word rant is not etymologyically related.
1:36.8	There is also a verb harangue which refers to the act of making such a speech.
1:42.0	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:45.0	Visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, wordplay and trending word lookups.

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