discriminate

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage) From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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

• IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkɹɪmɪneɪt/

Verb

discriminate (third-person singular simple present discriminat, present participle ing, 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?)

   • ” —Revelation 21:8 (RSV)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; see also Thesaurus:tell apart
• (make decisions based on prejudice): disfavor

Antonyms

• (make decisions based on prejudice): favor

Derived terms

Terms derived from discriminate

• discriminative

• discriminatory

Translations

to distinguish

• Arabic: مَيَّزَ (mayyaza)
• Bulgarian: различавам (bg) (različavam), разграничавам (bg) (razgraničavam)
• Danish: skelne (da), sondre
• Finnish: huomata ero, tehdä ero
• French: discriminer (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: whakapai kanohi
• Norman: discriminner
• Polish: dyskryminować (pl)
• Russian: дискриминировать (ru) (diskriminirovatʹ)
• Spanish: discriminar (es)
• Swedish: diskriminera (sv)
• Thai: เลือกปฏิบัติ (lʉ̂ʉak-bpà-dtì-bàt)
• 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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “discriminate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

---

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

---

Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) discrīmināte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of discrīminō