critique

Forms

critique (plural critiques)^[1] First written cretique (1372); the spelling critique is found in Paré about 1560.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin criticus, a word of Late Latin medicine often used with diēs (“day”), which is from Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós, “able to judge, decisive”), from κρίνω (krínō, “to judge, to decide”).^{[3][4][5][6][1][7]} The medical word, first recorded in the phrase jour cretique in 1372, qualified the phase of an illness that decides its outcome.^[3][4][2]

The sense “able to judge”, used of the person who judges works of the mind, was taken again from the Latin word in 1580; in this sense Latin attests it only as a masculine noun, probably by chance.^[4][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF take the feminine noun, “the art of judging”, from κριτική (kritikḗ, “the art of judging”), the feminine of the Greek adjective used as a noun.^[5][2] The two uses are thus learned doublets of one Greek word.^[4] It is related to crise and critère.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1372, in Corbichon's jour cretique, a medical term for the day on which an illness reaches its turning point.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The medical adjective spread into general use only in the 18th century (1748 in Canadian French, 1762 in Rousseau) with the sense “deciding the fate of someone or something, bringing a change”, whence “difficult, dangerous”; it was taken up in physics in 1888 for a threshold beyond which a change occurs, and later in masse critique.^[4][3][5]

The second use began with aesthetics rather than morals: la critique was the art of judging works of the mind and, by metonymy, a judgement passed on them (1580).^[4][2] In the classical period the masculine noun came to name the person who judges literary works (1674) or judges in general (1635), and the adjective qualified what is able to judge (1667, esprit critique).^[4] The Quemada datings put the masculine noun at 1674, in Boileau, and call the 1580 date for Scaliger mistaken.^[9] From the end of the 17th century noun and adjective took the common pejorative sense “finding fault with everything”.^[4][10] In philosophy, after Kant's Critique de la raison pure (1781), the noun names the inquiry into the value of knowledge, and since 1810 (Chateaubriand) it is also the body of critics as a whole.^[4][10]

English restored the French spelling critique in 1702 for a critical review.^[11]

Timeline

• 1372 – Corbichon uses jour cretique in medicine.^[3][2]
• c. 1560 – Paré writes the form critique.^[2]
• 1580 – The noun is used of the art of judging works of the mind.^[4][2][5]
• 1635 – A critique is a person who judges in general.^[4]
• 1667 – Boileau uses the adjective “able to judge” (esprit critique).^[4][5][9]
• 1674 – The masculine noun names a critic of literary works.^[4][9]
• 1702 – English adopts the spelling critique.^[11]
• 1748 – The adjective “decisive” is recorded in Canadian French.^[4]
• 1762 – Rousseau uses it in the sense “deciding someone's fate”.^[3][4]
• 1810 – Chateaubriand uses la critique for critics as a body.^[4][10]
• 1888 – The physical sense is recorded in Larousse.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (medicine) Relating to a crisis, deciding the outcome of an illness: jour critique, phase critique.^[10][2]
2. critical, decisive, dangerous: une situation critique.^[10][12]
3. (physics) Marking the threshold of a physical change: point critique, masse critique.^[10][12]
4. Judging the value of works of the mind, examining the logic of a statement or the authenticity of a text: édition critique, esprit critique.^[10][3]
5. Inclined to criticize, negative.^[10][1]

Noun

1. (feminine) The art of judging literary and artistic works, and a judgement or review of such a work.^[10][1]
2. (feminine, collective) Critics as a body: la critique a bien accueilli ce film.^[10]
3. (feminine) The examination of the value of something, as in critique historique and Kant's Critique de la raison pure.^[10][2]
4. (feminine) Unfavourable judgement, criticism.^[10][1]
5. (masculine or feminine) A critic, a person who judges works of the mind: critique littéraire, critique de cinéma.^[10][12]

Word family

• critiquer
• hypercritique
• critiquable
• critiqueur
• criticité

Related words

• crise
• critère
• Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1354b
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)