Kritik

Pronunciation

• /kʁiˈtiːk/, /kʁiˈtɪk/^[1]

Forms

Kritik f (genitive Kritik, plural Kritiken)^[1] It was first written in the French way, Critique;^[2][3] Critic and Critik follow in the 18th century, and Lessing still wrote Critik.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French critique, borrowed at the end of the 17th century, from Ancient Greek κριτική (kritikḗ, “the art of judging”), from κριτικός (kritikós, “able to judge, deciding”), from κρίνω (krínō, “to separate, decide, judge”).^[2][4][5][6] The stress on the last syllable comes from French.^[3][7] The Duden dictionary traces the Greek verb to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”), the root of scheren.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thomasius used Critique in 1688 in his Monatsgespräche, and Wernicke in 1704 described it as the review that follows each new book in France.^[8][9] It came in as the keyword of a new judging of literature and art on the French model.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

In antiquity the word meant simply “judgement”; in the 18th century it centred on criticism of art and of the Bible, and later widened again.^[6] Lessing made it the name of reasoned judgement of literature, and by the 18th century it also meant a written review and the critics as a body.^[9] Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1781) applied it to the faculty of reason itself.^[9]

The colloquial sense “fault-finding, objection” (Kritik üben) is the commonest today.^[9][5] Unter aller Kritik “beneath contempt” dates from 1769.^[9] The adjective kritisch (1662) and the verb kritisieren (1663) came in at about the same time.^[9]

Timeline

• 1688 – Thomasius writes Critique.^[8][9]
• 18th century – the spellings Critic and Critik appear.^[2]
• 1769 – unter aller Kritik is recorded.^[9]
• 1781 – Kant publishes the Kritik der reinen Vernunft.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Expert judgement or assessment of something: eine sachliche Kritik.^[5][10]
2. Criticism, fault-finding: an der Regierung Kritik üben, auf scharfe Kritik stoßen.^[5][1]
3. (historical) In the former socialist states, public criticism of faults as a political tool, in Kritik und Selbstkritik.^[5]
4. A review of a book, film or performance in the media: Die Kritiken des Films waren glänzend.^[5][1]
5. The critics as a body: Die Kritik lobte die Inszenierung.^[5][10]

Word family

• kritiklos
• Selbstkritik

Related words

• Kritiker
• kritisch
• kritisieren
• Krise
• Kriterium

Usage notes

Unter aller Kritik means “very bad, beneath contempt”.^[5][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 2334
4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 543
7. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b c Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag