judicious

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French judicieux,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in that language in 1588,^[2] and formed from Latin iūdicium (“judgment”) and -eux.^[2][4] Etymonline also allows a direct source in Medieval Latin iudiciosus (“prudent, judicious”),^[7] and Dictionary.com derives it straight from the Latin noun with -ous.^[8] The Latin noun is from iūdex (“judge”), the source of judge.^[5][3][7] The OED compares Spanish judicioso, from 1578, and Italian giudizioso, from before 1472.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person or a person's faculties, having sound judgment: 1591, in Harington's apology for poetry, in his translation of Ariosto.^[2][4] Etymonline has about 1600.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word first described people and then, from 1598, what they did or wrote, a use not found in French until 1647.^[2] As a plural noun, the judicious, people of good judgment as a class, is in Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour of 1600.^[2] From 1608 to 1642 it could also mean "of the administration of justice", as in King Lear, a sense without a parallel in the Romance languages which the OED explains from the sense of showing judgment, partly by association with judicial.^[2][9] In 1679 Shadwell used it of a manner or voice like a judge's.^[2] Johnson (1755) defines it as prudent, wise and skilful in any matter, and quotes Shakespeare, Milton and Locke.^[10] It now especially suggests sense in practical matters and in adapting means to ends, as well as discernment in intellectual ones.^[9][2]

Timeline

• 1591 – of a person, having sound judgment.^[2][4]
• 1598 – of an action or writing, showing sound judgment.^[2]
• 1600 – noun, the judicious, judicious people as a class.^[2]
• 1608 – of the administration of justice (obsolete by 1642).^[2]
• 1679 – of a manner or voice, like a judge's.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person, having or using sound judgment; wise, discerning: a judicious editor.^{[4][11][2][9]}
2. Of an action or thought, showing good judgment; prudent, discreet: a judicious choice of words.^{[4][11][2][8]}
3. Of a person's manner or voice, like a judge's.^[2]
4. (obsolete, 1608–42) Of the administration of justice; judicial.^[2][9]

Noun

1. With the: judicious people as a class.^[2]

Word family

• judiciously
• judiciousness
• injudicious
• overjudicious

Related words

• judge
• judgment
• judicial
• judiciary

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins