"to address in a harangue; to deliver a harangue," 1650s, from French haranguer (15c.), from harangue (see harangue (n.)). Related: Harangued; haranguing.
"a public address; a formal, vehement, or passionate address;" also "any formal or pompous speech; a declamation; a tirade," mid-15c., arang, Scottish (in English from c. 1600), from French harangue "a public address" (14c.), from Old Italian aringo "public square, platform; pulpit; arena," from a Germanic source such as Old High German hring "circle" (see ring (n.1)) on the notion of "circular gathering," with an -a- inserted to ease Romanic pronunciation of Germanic hr- (compare hamper (n.1)).
But Watkins and Barnhart suggest a Germanic compound, *harihring "circular gathering, assembly," literally "host-ring, army-ring," with first element *hari- "war-band, host" (see harry (v.)). From the same Germanic "ring" root via Romanic come rank (n.), range (v.), arrange.
late 14c., declamacioun, "composition written to be declaimed," from Latin declamationem (nominative declamatio) "exercise in oratorical delivery; declamation;" in a bad sense, "loud, eager talking," noun of action from past-participle stem of declamare "to practice public speaking, to bluster," from de-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see de-) + clamare "to cry, shout" (from PIE root *kele- (2) "to shout"). Meaning "a public harangue or speech" is from 1520s; sense of "act of making rhetorical harangues in public" is from 1550s.
1510s, "a talk," from Latin sermocinationem (nominative sermocinatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of sermonari "talk, discourse, harangue," from sermo (see sermon). From 1753 in rhetoric. Related: Sermocinator, agent noun; sermocinatrix "a female talker" (1620s); sermocinate (1620s).
A form of prosopopoeia in which the speaker, having addressed a real or imaginary hearer with a remark or especially a question, immediately answers for the hearer: as, "Is a man known to have received foreign money? People envy him. Does he own it? They laugh. Is he formally convicted? They forgive him." [Century Dictionary]
"a long, rambling discourse; incoherent harangue," 1736, apparently from an altered, Kentish colloquial survival of ragman roll "long list, roster, or catalogue" (c. 1500). The origins of this are in Middle English rageman "document recording accusations or offenses," also "an accuser" (late 13c.). For this, Middle English Compendium compares Old Norse rogs-maðr "a slanderer," from older *vrogs-mannr. With folk-etymology alterations along the way.
By late 14c. rageman was the name of a game involving a long roll of verses, each descriptive of personal character or appearance. In Anglo-French c. 1300 Ragemon le bon, "Ragemon the good," is the heading on one set of verses, suggesting a characterization. The sense was transferred to "foolish activity or commotion" generally by 1939.
1610s, "discussion, debate" (a sense now obsolete), from Late Latin dissertationem (nominative dissertatio) "discourse," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin dissertare "debate, argue, examine, harangue," frequentative of disserere "discuss, examine," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + serere "to join together, put in a row, arrange (words)," from PIE root *ser- (2) "to line up."
Sense of "formal, written treatise" is from 1650s. Meaning "research paper required as a final project for a Ph.D or other doctoral degree" is attested by 1877 in reference to continental universities; it was in use in the U.S. by 1890. Related: Dissertational. There is no regular verb to go with it: Dissert (1620s, from French disserter, from Latin dissertare) is obsolete, and dissertate (1766) is marked "Unusual" in OED.
1580s, in Aristotle's logic, "a highest notion," from French catégorie, from Late Latin categoria, from Greek katēgoria "accusation, prediction, category," verbal noun from katēgorein "speak against; to accuse, assert, predicate," from kata "down to" (or perhaps "against;" see cata-) + agoreuein "to harangue, to declaim (in the assembly)," from agora "public assembly" (from PIE root *ger- "to gather").
The Greek verb's original sense of "accuse" had weakened to "assert, name" by the time Aristotle applied katēgoria to his 10 classes of "expressions that are in no way composite," perhaps "things that can be named simply." Precisely what he meant by it "has been disputed almost from his own day till the present" [OED].
What, exactly, is meant by the word "category," whether in Aristotle or in Kant and Hegel, I must confess that I have never been able to understand. I do not myself believe that the term "category" is in any way useful in philosophy, as representing any clear idea. [Bertrand Russell, "A History of Western Philosophy," 1945]
The sense of "any very wide and distinctive class, any comprehensive class of persons or things" is from 1660s.
category should be used by no-one who is not prepared to state (1) that he does not mean class, & (2) that he knows the difference between the two .... [Fowler]
