a modern French name for a speech or oration made by an orator in public.—Menage derives the word from the Italian arenga, which signifies the same; formed, according to Ferrari, from arringo, "a just, or place of justing." Others derive it from Harangue the Latin ara, "altar;" by reason the first harangues were made before altars; whence the verse of Juvenal, Aut Lugdunensis rhetor diciturus ad aram.

Harangues were usually made by the generals, previous to an engagement, both amongst the Greeks and Romans. An harangue on such occasions was called allocutio. See Allocutio.

The word is also frequently used in an ill sense, viz. for a too pompous, prolix, or unseemly speech or declamation.