[A gradual alteration of the 17–18th c. critick, CRITIC sb.2, after French.
Critique occurs in Addison’s Dial. Medals (publ. in Wks. 1721), and Pope so altered his spelling in 1729. It became general in the 18th c., though Johnson and most of the dictionaries to the end of the century adhered to critick. Todd substituted critique in his ed. of J. in 1818; the modern pronunciation and stress after F. (or Ger.) appears in 1815.]
1. An essay or article in criticism of a literary (or more rarely, an artistic) work; a review.
1702–21. Addison, Dial. Medals, Wks. 1721, I. iii. 532. I should as soon expect to see a Critique on the Posie of a Ring, as on the Inscription of a Medal.
1729. Pope, Dunc., I. 173. Not that my quill to Critiques was confin’d [in ed. 1728 Not that my pen to Criticks was confin’d].
1793. Cowper, Lett., 17 Feb. I have read the critique of my work in the Analytical Review.
1820. Byron, Blues, I. 22. I just had been skimming a charming critique.
1882. Pebody, Eng. Journalism, xix. 143. Turning out articles and critiques upon the topics of social life, of art, or literature.
2. The action or art of criticizing; criticism.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 46. I deem such the basis of candid critique.
1856. Meiklejohn, trans. Kant’s Crit. P. R., 15. Idea and division of a particular science, under the name of a Critique of Pure Reason.
1866. J. Martineau, Ess., I. 51. The critique of nature in detail is quite beyond us.
Hence Critique v. trans., to write a critique upon; to review, criticize. (In quot. 1751 prob. stressed cri·tique: cf. CRITIC v.)
1751. F. Coventry, Hist. Pompey the Little, p. vii. The worst ribaldry of Aristophanes shall be critiqued and commented on.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 2. Some writers there are who … all subjects critique.
1831. Fraser’s Mag., IV. 3. Hogg’s tales are critiqued by himself in Blackwood.
