decern

The story

1. Latin · derived fromdēcernō“to decide, pronounce a decision”
2. French · derived fromdécerner
3. English todaydecern

First attested in late Middle English circa 1425; from the French décerner, from the Latin dēcernō (“to decide, pronounce a decision”), from dē (“of, from, away from”) + cernō (“to separate, distinguish”), whence the English cern. In Old French, the forms of décerner were frequently conflated with those of descerner, discerner; the two verbs were not clearly distinguished until the 16th century; hence, in English also, decern is found with the sense discern.

Words from the same roots