Etymology

discriminate

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Today it means: To make distinctions. Full definition →

Latin discrīminātus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromdiscrīminātus
  2. English todaydiscriminate

First attested in 1615; borrowed from Latin discrīminātus, perfect passive participle of discrīminō (“to divide, separate, distinguish”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from discrīmen (“a space between, division, separation, distinction”), from discernō (“to divide, separate, distinguish, discern”). By surface analysis, dis- + criminate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.