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Many thanks for the info

• dalke 10y ago
  You're welcome. Ngrams is a great tool for questions like that. As for the essay, "constructive criticism" means two things. One is feedback, which can be negative, designed to improve things. Peer review of scientific papers is sometimes a form of constructive criticism. Another - the one the essay highlights - is when 'constructive criticism' is used as cover for punching down, in order to minimize the negative repercussions. (It's also a way to enforce a "tall poppy syndrome" culture, but the essay didn't mention that type of 'constructive criticism.' "Devil's advocate" is a similar term with two different meanings. In the best of cases, it's someone who gives negative criticism meant to highlight the flaws in a proposal, even if the speaker is not against the proposal. In practice it's more often used as a cover for someone who wants to make a negative comment without putting much thought into the topic, and who doesn't want the triteness of the comment to be interpreted as personal ignorance.