critic

英文词源

critic

critic: [16] Critic and crisis both come ultimately from the Greek verb krínein ‘decide’ (a relative of Latin cernere ‘decide’, which produced English certain, crime, decree, discern, discrete, discriminate, excrement, riddle ‘sieve’, secret, and secretary). The Greek derived noun krísis ‘judgment’ was used by the physicians Hippocrates and Galen for the ‘turning point of a disease’.

It passed as a medical term via Latin crisis into English in the 15th century, where it was not used in the more general modern sense until the 17th century. The Greek derived noun krités ‘judge’ produced in turn kritikós ‘able to make judgments’; this came to be used as a noun, ‘one who makes judgments’, which passed via Latin criticus into English.

Another descendant of krités was Greek kritérion ‘standard for making a judgment’, borrowed directly into English in the 17th century as criterion.
=> certain, crime, crisis, criterion, discern, discriminate, excrement, secret

critic (n.)

1580s, "one who passes judgment," from Middle French critique (14c.), from Latin criticus "a judge, literary critic," from Greek kritikos "able to make judgments," from krinein "to separate, decide" (see crisis). Meaning "one who judges merits of books, plays, etc." is from c. 1600. The English word always had overtones of "censurer, faultfinder."

To understand how the artist felt, however, is not criticism; criticism is an investigation of what the work is good for. ... Criticism ... is a serious and public function; it shows the race assimilating the individual, dividing the immortal from the mortal part of a soul. [George Santayana, "The Life of Reason," 1906]

---

A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ;
[Pope, "An Essay on Criticism," 1709]