diatribe French · revision 16092

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1558, Simon Fontaine|origins=grc διατριβή}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /dja.tʁib/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''diatribe''' ''f'' (plural diatribes)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is borrowed from [[la-lat|diatriba|t=discussion; school]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005) from [[grc|διατριβή|tr=diatribḗ]], literally “a wearing away”, whence “pastime” and “study, philosophical discourse”, from [[grc|διατρίβω|tr=diatríbō|t=to rub away; to spend (time)]], from “dia-” and “tribein” “to rub, wear”.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)^(Littré 1873)^(Etymonline) Rey mentions a comparison of the stem with Latin “detrimentum” (see [[détriment]]).^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Simon Fontaine's ''Histoire catholique de nostre temps'' (1558) has it in an uncertain sense, a school discussion.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Chapelain (1638) used it for a critical dissertation on a work or a point of doctrine (''des diatribes sur les principales matières controversées de la primitive Église'').^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) With Voltaire (1734 according to Bloch and Wartburg, ''Dictionnaire philosophique'', 1764, according to the TLFi) it came to mean a bitter, violent and often abusive criticism.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) English ''diatribe'' (1640s) first meant a learned discourse, and took the sense of invective by 1804, apparently from French.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1558 – In Simon Fontaine.^(TLFi)

+ * 1638 – A critical dissertation, in Chapelain.^(TLFi)

+ * 1640s – English ''diatribe''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1734 – Invective, in Voltaire.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1764 – In Voltaire's ''Dictionnaire philosophique''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|diatribe]], bitter attack: ''une violente diatribe contre le régime''.^(Larousse)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(classical)'' A critical dissertation.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[grc|διατριβή|tr=diatribḗ]]

+ * [[en|diatribe]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}