critic

the word 'critic' originates from the latin 'criticus', which was borrowed from the greek 'kritikos', meaning 'able to discern or judge'. the greek term derives from 'kritēs', meaning 'a judge', which itself comes from the verb 'krinein', meaning 'to separate, decide, or judge'. this core notion of making a distinction or forming a judgment evolved from the literal act of separating or sifting into the modern abstract sense of evaluating and analyzing merits and faults. the suffix '-ic' was adopted into english via latin and french to denote a person characterized by a specific action or skill, thus a 'critic' is fundamentally 'one who judges'.

Structure: crit (judge) + ic (person who does) crit (from greek 'kritēs', meaning 'judge'), ic (from greek '-ikos', a suffix forming adjectives and nouns, here meaning 'a person concerned with').