discriminate

English

Etymology

From Latin discriminatus, past participle of discriminare (“to divide, separate, distinguish”), from discrimen (“a space between, division, separation, distinction”), from discerno (“to divide, separate, distinguish, discern”); see discern, discreet, discrete. Compare crime.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkɹɪmɪneɪt/

Verb

discriminate (third-person singular simple present discriminates, present participle discriminating, simple past and past participle discriminated)

1. (intransitive) To make distinctions.

   Since he was colorblind he was unable to discriminate between the blue and green bottles.

2. (intransitive, construed with against) To make decisions based on prejudice.

   The law prohibits discriminating against people based on their skin color.

3. (transitive) To set apart as being different; to mark as different; to separate from another by discerning differences; to distinguish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowper to this entry?)

   • Barrow

     To discriminate the goats from the sheep.

Usage notes

Due to the strong pejorative connotations of sense of “decide based on prejudice”, care should be taken in using the term in the sense “distinguish, make distinctions”, and this sense is primarily used in formal discourse; synonyms are generally used instead.

Synonyms

• (make distinctions): distinguish, differentiate
• (make decisions based on prejudice): disfavor

Antonyms

• (make decisions based on prejudice): favor

Derived terms

Terms derived from discriminate

• discriminative

• discriminatory

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to discriminate

• discriminant
• discrimination

• indiscriminate

Translations

to distinguish

• Bulgarian: различавам (bg) (različavam), разграничавам (bg) (razgraničavam)
• Danish: skelne (da), sondre
• Finnish: huomata ero, tehdä ero
• French: discriminer (fr)

• Japanese: 区別する (ja) (kubetsu suru)
• Norman: discriminner
• Swedish: skilja (sv)

to make decisions based on prejudice

• Bulgarian: дискриминирам (diskriminiram)
• Catalan: discriminar (ca)
• Danish: diskriminere (da), forskelsbehandle
• Finnish: (~ against) syrjiä, diskriminoida
• French: discriminer (fr)
• German: diskriminieren (de)
• Hungarian: diszkriminál (hu)

• Japanese: 差別する (ja) (sabetsu suru), 冷遇する (reigū suru)
• Norman: discriminner
• Polish: dyskryminować (pl)
• Russian: дискриминировать (ru) (diskriminirovatʹ)
• Spanish: discriminar (es)
• Swedish: diskriminera (sv)
• Vietnamese: kỳ thị (vi)

Adjective

discriminate (comparative more discriminate, superlative most discriminate)

1. Having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

Further reading

• discriminate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• discriminate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

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Italian

Verb

discriminate

1. second-person plural present indicative of discriminare
2. second-person plural imperative of discriminare
3. feminine plural of discriminato

Anagrams

• dimenticarsi

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Latin

Verb

discrīmināte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of discrīminō