j'accuse

Borrowing from French J'Accuse ("I accuse"), the title of an 1898 open letter from writer Emile Zola to the president of France during the Dreyfus Affair.

• IPA^(key): /ʒəˈkjuːz/

j'accuse (plural j'accuses)

1. An accusation, especially one made publicly. [from 19th c.]
   • 2009, Jack Balkin, The Guardian (online), 17 Mar 2009:

     It was a rare combination of circumstances that led Cramer to agree to sit still and listen to Stewart engage in his j'accuse.

   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 369:

     Buried within Dudley's petition, then, was a veiled ‘j'accuse’.

As it is a loanword and not naturalized in English, j'accuse is typically italicized in print.

• indictment
• tirade

• accusation
• accuse
• accuser