喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can picture the old root meaning: someone standing in front of two things and carefully separating them — deciding which is good and which is bad, what really matters and what doesn't. From that single act of 'sorting and deciding' the whole word grows: in one direction it becomes 'looking hard at something to judge it' (and from there, finding fault), and in the other direction it becomes 'the moment of decision itself' — the turning point where everything could go either way.

可以想成一個人站在兩樣東西前面，仔細地把它們分開、判斷哪個好哪個壞、哪個重要哪個不重要。這個「分辨、下判斷」的動作比…更多收起可以想成一個人站在兩樣東西前面，仔細地把它們分開、判斷哪個好哪個壞、哪個重要哪個不重要。這個「分辨、下判斷」的動作比較像整個字的源頭：往一邊發展，變成「仔細審視、評斷一件事」（再延伸出挑毛病、批評）；往另一邊發展，變成「下判斷的那一刻」——也就是攸關成敗、隨時可能往好或往壞翻轉的關鍵時刻。

From the word’s history

From Greek 'kritikos' (able to judge) ← 'krinein' (to separate, decide). The same root gives 'crisis' (krisis = judgment / decisive turning point), which is why critical can mean both 'judging' and 'at a decisive, dangerous moment'.

源自希臘文 kritikos（能夠判斷的）← krinein（分開、決定）。同一個字根也生出 crisis（krisis＝判斷、決定性的轉捩點），所以 critical 才會同時有「評斷」和「處在決定性、危險時刻」兩種意思。

etymonline.com/word/critical; etymonline.com/word/crisis

Two branches

評斷・批評

這一族直接承接字根「分辨、下判斷」的動作：把一件作品或想法攤開來仔細秤量它的好壞。

analytical/judging · adjective · B2

Looking carefully at something to judge how good or bad it really is.

評析的

關鍵・危急

這一族走的是 crisis 那條線：判斷的「那一刻」被放大成攸關成敗、隨時翻轉的關頭。

very important · adjective · B2

Very important, because what happens later depends on it.

關鍵的

原始詞典資料14 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

criticaladj/ˈkɹɪt.ɪ.kəl/

  • 1

    Inclined to find fault or criticize.

    • A good teacher is fair but critical.
    • Let us go back to the beginning and consider what the charge is that has made people so critical of me, and has encouraged Meletus to draw up this indictment.
  • 2

    Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis or turning point.

    • This is a critical moment.
    • Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
  • 3

    Extremely important.

    • It's critical that you deliver this on time.
    • Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:[…]. The evolutionary precursor of photosynthesis is still under debate, and a new study sheds light. The critical component of the photosynthetic system is the “water-oxidizing complex”, made up of manganese atoms and a calcium atom.
  • 4

    Relating to criticism or careful analysis, such as literary or film criticism.

    • The movie was a critical success, but bombed at the box-office.
    • “Unless you are purchasing cereal from a health food store, many brands that are marketed as healthy are usually full of sugar and processed ingredients,” says Garcia. So when you’re choosing cereal, bread or any other whole-grain product, Garcia recommends reading labels with a critical eye.
  • 5

    human-scienceslinguisticssciencesRelating to criticism or careful analysis, such as literary or film criticism.

  • 6

    medicinesciencesOf a patient condition involving unstable vital signs and a prognosis that predicts the condition could worsen; or, a patient condition that requires urgent treatment in an intensive care or critical care medical facility.

    • The patient's condition is critical.
  • 7

    medicinesciencesIn such a condition.

    • The patient is critical.
    • Two critical after fatal Wimbledon school crash
  • 8

    Likely to go out of control if disturbed, that is, opposite of stable.

    • The political situation was so critical that the government declared the state of siege.
另外 3 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsOf the point (in temperature, reagent concentration etc.) where a nuclear or chemical reaction becomes self-sustaining.

    • The reaction was about to become critical.
  • 10

    natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsOf a temperature that is equal to the temperature of the critical point of a substance, i.e. the temperature above which the substance cannot be liquefied.

  • 11

    biologybotanynatural-sciencesNeeding great discrimination to be correctly classified; easily confused.

    • critical plants

criticalnoun/ˈkɹɪt.ɪ.kəl/

  • 1

    A critical value, factor, etc.

    • The second undamped system criticals show a greater percentage depression than the first.
    • Finally, criticals are high-risk, high-value items that give the final product a competitive advantage in the marketplace […] Criticals, in part, determine the customer's ultimate cost of using the finished product — in our example, the computer.
  • 2

    critical hit

  • 3

    In breakdancing, a kind of airflare move in which the dancer hops from one hand to the other.

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。