Semantic drift?: "diatribe" (Was: Help Needed Please)

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED defines "diatribe" as "In modern use: A dissertation or discourse directed against some person or work; a bitter and violent criticism; an invective."

  I've noticed that media newspersons frequently - in fact usually - use this word to describe any pubicly uttered,  emphatically negative comment. It need not be "violent," "bitter," or include "invective."

  JL







Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Amy West
Subject: Re: Help Needed Please
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:18:35 -0800
>From: Brenda Lester
>Subject: Re: Help Needed Please
>
>Does this list-serve have a FAQs? I could not find one when I search
>the ADS site.
> If not, may those who share your opinion should create specific
>quidelines to your liking.

I'm not a dues paying member of the ADS so I should have held my tongue.

I consider the student request similar to those that get posted for
Safire's assistants, and I like the current laissez-faire policy of
letting those who want to respond to do so, and those who don't, to
keep silent.

---Amy West

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org