Also 7 crittick, criticke, -ique, 7–8 critick. [ad. L. critic-us sb., a. Gr. κριτικός a critical person, a critic, subst. use of the adj.; perh. immediately after F. critique: see prec. In early times used in the L. form:
1583. Fulke, Defence Eng. Bible (Parker Soc.), 381. The prince of the Critici.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXII. xi. 206. I am here forced even against my will to be after a sort Criticus … but to find out a truth.]
1. One who pronounces judgment on any thing or person; esp. one who passes severe or unfavorable judgment; a censurer, fault-finder, caviller.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., III. i. 177. I that haue beene loues whip … A Criticke, Nay, a night-watch Constable.
1598. Florio, Ital. Dict., To Rdr. Those notable Pirates in this our paper-sea, those sea-dogs, or lande-Critikes, monsters of men.
1606. Dekker, Newes from Hell. Take heed of criticks: they bite, like fish, at anything, especially at bookes.
1692. E. Walker, Epictetus’ Mor., xlix. Nor play the Critick, nor be apt to jeer.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., 5. How strangely some words lose their primitive sense! By a Critick, was originally understood a good judge; with us nowadays it signifies no more than a Fault finder.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (1777), I. iv. 192. We are never safe in the company of a critic.
2. One skilful in judging of the qualities and merits of literary or artistic works; one who writes upon the qualities of such works; a professional reviewer of books, pictures, plays, and the like; also one skilled in textual or biblical criticism.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. vii. § 21. Certaine Critiques are used to say … That if all sciences were lost, they might bee found in Virgill.
1697. Bentley, Phal., Introd. To pass a censure on all kinds of writings, to shew their excellencies and defects, and especially to assign each … to their proper authors, was the chief Province of the ancient Critics.
1780. Johnson, Lett. Mrs. Thrale, 27 July. Mrs. Cholmondely … told me I was the best critick in the world; and I told her, that nobody in the world could judge like her of the merit of a critick.
1825. Macaulay, Ess. Milton, Ess. (1854), I. 3/1. The poet, we believe, understood the nature of his art better than the critic [Johnson].
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, xxxv. 184. You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.
