Meaning: Its source is Yirmeyahu, a Hebrew name meaning "Exalted by God."

Origin: "Yirmeyahu."

Narrative: So bitter and tempestuous were the moral exhortations of the Jewish prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah in English) that any communication similarly laden with condemnation and predictions of doom has come to be called a ''jeremiad'' in his honor.

Curiously, none of this fire and brimstone descended upon Jeremy; it evolved from the prophet's name without picking up any of its stormy associations.