Pl. criteria; less commonly -ons. [a. Gr. κριτήριον a means for judging, test, standard, f. κριτής judge. In 17th c. often written in Gr. letters.]
† a. An organ, faculty or instrument of judging.
1647. H. More, Poems, Pref. Wits that have … so crusted and made hard their inward κριτήριον by over-much and trivial wearing it.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 23. According to Empedocles, the Criterion of Truth is not Sense but Right Reason.
b. A test, principle, rule, canon, or standard, by which anything is judged or estimated.
1622. Bp. Hall, Serm., 15 Sept. Wks. (1627), 490. All the false κριτηρια that vse to beguile the iudgment of man.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, I. 129. The moving hereof [a statue] was made the Criterion of womens chastity.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 330. Some mode of probation or trial, which the law of the country has ordained for a criterion of truth and falshood.
1788. Mrs. Hughes, Henry & Isabella, I. 17. Regular uniformity and the straight line were the criterions of taste and beauty.
1795. Fate of Sedley, I. 168. Lord Stokerland [is] the criterion of gallantry and politeness.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 18. We have no criterion by which, in these matters, degrees of good and evil admit of being measured.
† c. A distinguishing mark or characteristic attaching to a thing, by which it can be judged or estimated. Obs.
1613. Jackson, Creed, I. v. Wks. I. 37. This sincerity in teaching … is the true κριτήριον or touchstone, the livery or cognizance of a man speaking by the Spirit of God.
1678. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, III. 138. Take these Criteria or distinctive notes of Durandisme.
