κριτικός

Forms

κρῐτῐκός (kritikós) m (feminine κρῐτῐκή, neuter κρῐτῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a derivation from Ancient Greek κριτής (kritḗs, “judge”), with the suffix -ικός (-ikós); the noun comes from κρίνω (krī́nō, “to judge, distinguish”).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plato's Statesman, for the art of judging or discerning, ἡ κριτική.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle uses it of the faculty that discerns, such as the senses, and of the person who can judge any subject well; he also calls a judicial office “critical”, as opposed to a deliberative one.^[3][4] In Hellenistic Greek ὁ κριτικός became the scholar who judged and explained literature, and some authors distinguished him from the γραμματικός (grammatikós), while Dio Chrysostom says that the later “grammarians” were formerly called critics.^[3] Philo, Plutarch and Galen used it, like κρίσιμος (krísimos), of the decisive days of a disease.^[3] The Letter to the Hebrews calls the word of God able to judge the thoughts of the heart.^[2]

Latin borrowed it as criticus.^[5] In Modern Greek κριτικός (kritikós) is a learned word whose modern senses, such as literary or art critic, are semantic loans from French critique and New Latin criticus.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the feminine ἡ κριτική for the art of judging.^[3][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the discerning faculties and of judicial offices.^[3][4]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus and, later, Strabo use it for a literary scholar.^[3]
• 1st century AD – The Letter to the Hebrews uses it of the word of God judging the heart.^[2]
• Modern Greek – The learned word κριτικός (kritikós) means “critical” and, as a noun, a critic.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to discern or judge; with a genitive, a good judge of something.^[3][4][2]
2. (of an art or faculty) Of judging, evaluative; ἡ κριτική the art of judgement.^[3][4]
3. Of or for judging, judicial.^[3][4]
4. (medicine) Critical, decisive, of the days of a disease.^[3]

Noun

1. A scholar or literary critic, a grammarian.^[3][4]

Related words

• διακριτικός (diakritikós)
• ὀνειροκριτικός (oneirokritikós)
• συγκριτικός (sunkritikós)
• ὑποκριτικός (hupokritikós)
• κρίνω (krī́nō)
• κριτής (kritḗs)
• κρίσις (krísis)
• Latin criticus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος