precritical

[ pree-krit-i-kuhl ]

adjective

, Medicine/Medical.

1. anteceding a crisis.

precritical

/ priːˈkrɪtɪkəl /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or occurring during the period preceding a crisis or a critical state or condition

   a precritical phase of a disease

Word History and Origins

Origin of precritical¹

First recorded in 1880–85; pre- + critical

Example Sentences

“It takes no effort at all to peg you, my friend, as a Gen-X baby in the throes of middle age, flailing between the Kubler-Ross stages of denial and acceptance as you mourn your lost youth” —and sometimes he expounds on one of Scott’s points, explaining that “a vital source of critical energy” is the “precritical capacity for simple delight, the ability to be moved without thinking.”

From Slate

Precritical, prē-krit′i-kal, adj. previous to the critical philosophy of Kant.

From Project Gutenberg

Father Richard McBrien, chairman of the theology department at the University of Notre Dame, dismisses the idea of a personal archdemon as "premodern and precritical."

From Time Magazine Archive

Whether he bought the picture in his precritical days, keeping it as a warning and imposing it upon his followers as a hoax—this I can merely conjecture.

From Project Gutenberg