Diatribe
A sustained, forceful verbal attack on a person, idea or institution.
A diatribe is an extended denunciation delivered with heat. The Greek diatribē originally meant simply a discourse or a way of passing time, and in Hellenistic philosophy it named a popular moral lecture in a conversational style. The modern English sense — bitter, prolonged attack — hardened in the nineteenth century.
A diatribe differs from an invective in length and from a rant in structure. Invective is concentrated abuse; a diatribe unfolds over paragraphs, accumulating charges. A rant may wander; the classical diatribe has a spine, often built on an imagined opponent who is questioned and refuted in turn.
Quotable lines come out of diatribes constantly, and this is where care is needed. A single sentence pulled from a sustained attack usually reads as more absolute than the writer intended, because the surrounding qualifications have been left behind.
Common mistake: labelling any strongly worded criticism a diatribe. The word carries a judgement — that the attack is excessive — so using it neutrally will read as dismissal to your reader.
“It is a damnable heresy that the poor are poor because they are idle.”
Keep reading the glossary
Language of attack: abuse shaped by craft rather than simply shouted.
A sustained, vehement speech of denunciation — anger organised into paragraphs.
A long, forceful, often scolding address delivered at an audience rather than to it.
A long, vehement piece of writing or speech, usually a complaint delivered at length.