discrimination

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin discrīminātiō, discrīminātiōnem, the action noun to discrīminō, discrīmināre (“distinguish”). Equivalent to discriminate + -ion. In English use from the 17th century.

noun

1. (uncountable, countable) Discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and make correct decisions.
   Have you felt the weight of the considerations which have been presented, in order to show the importance of discrimination on the subject of revealed truth? 1846, Henry Hollis, Christian Discrimination; Or, A Discourse on the Things in Religion which Differ, page 86
   An earthquake here rolls harmless through the land, And Thou art good because the chimneys stand— There templed cities sink into the sea, And damp survivors, howling as they flee, Skip to the hills and hold a celebration In honor of Thy wise discrimination. 1892, Ambrose Bierce, Black Beetles in Amber
   In place of a discrimination box a jumping apparatus was used, and apparently this required performance less foreign to the natural response repertory of the bird. · 1950, Lyle Vincent Jones, Analysis of Visual Discrimination Learning by Pigeons, page 14
   The 'pretraining' for the two-choice discrimination involved a discrimination between angles differing by 19° (6° versus 25°) in which the smaller angle was marked with a 2 cm Plexiglas square that the bats had previously detected in a simple one-choice discrimination. 1989, Karen Ann Campbell, Mechanisms of Prey-tracking in the Echolocating Bat, page 71
2. (uncountable, countable, sometimes with "against") Differential treatment of an individual or group to their disadvantage; treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality; prejudice; bigotry.
   sexual or racial discrimination
   reverse discrimination
   The same arguments, however, which have effectually in this State [Rhode Island] maintained the disfranchisement of naturalized citizens, may prevail in those cases in which the State Constitution makes the discrimination against colored persons, as long as those State Constitutions remain in force. June 17, 1865, William Beach Lawrence, “The Suffrage Question”, in National Anti-Slavery Standard, volume XXVI, number 6, New York, page 1, column 6
   The state, in the exercise of its general power to prescribe rules of evidence, may provide that proof of a particular fact, or of several facts taken collectively, shall be prima facie evidence of another fact when there is some rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed. The legislative presumption is invalid when it is entirely arbitrary, or creates an invidious discrimination, or operates to deprive a party of a reasonable opportunity to present the pertinent facts in his defense. 1931, Bandini Petroleum Co. v. Superior Court, 284 U.S. 8, 18–19
   However, is it not true that within the preferred or official territory there are certain discriminations? For instance, are there not certain States in New England that suffer from certain discriminations, in comparison with other States in that official territory? 1939, United States. U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on interstate commerce, Freight-rate Discriminations, page 49
   Many sincere white people in the South privately oppose segregation and discrimination, but they are apprehensive lest they be publicly condemned. 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Transformed Nonconformist”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 13
   Due to severe and pervasive discrimination, people dared not be open about their homosexuality, and because no one would be open, social prejudice and discrimination became even stronger. 2001, Xiaopei He, “Chinese Queer (Tongzhi) Women Organizing in the 1990s”, in Ping-Chun Hsiung, Maria Jaschok, Cecilia Milwertz, Red Chan, editors, Chinese Women Organizing: Cadres, Feminists, Muslims, Queers, Berg, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 41
   The four Gospels were written by men, but they never report any instance of Jesus’ condoning sexual discrimination or the implied subservience or inferiority of women. 2014, Jimmy Carter, “The Bible and Gender Equality”, in A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, page 23
   The book also presents empirical results from studies of discrimination across the world to show the magnitude of the problem and the difficulties of comparison across national borders. 2021, Rosita Fibbi, Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, Patrick Simon, Migration and Discrimination
3. (uncountable) The quality of being discriminating; acute discernment, especially in matters of good taste.
   You are a man of discrimination,” said Qunk, “I admire that girl a little myself, and, entre nous, I think that I'm a bit of a favourite in that quarter.” 1863, Alfred Gladstone, The Man of the Hour: A Tale of Real Life - Volume 2, page 128
   Take heed, then, lest, while you plume yourselves on your superior wisdom and discrimination, the Great Captain does not arraign you before his court-martial on the charge of blood-guiltiness. 1881, C. F. Hull, Shadows of good things to come; or, the gospel in Ruth, page 42
   These differences amount to a discrimination by the animal in favour of calcium and against strontium and barium. 1963, David Paton Cuthbertson, Progress in Nutrition and Allied Sciences, page 238
   In the vocabulary of Madison Avenue, the man of discrimination is one who knows a fine set of luggage when he sees it. 1996, Eknath Easwaran, Seeing with the Eyes of Love, page 106
   Furthermore, holding the view that the jhānas are in conflict with discrimination and wisdom, one might argue that this quality cannot be developed and sustained when one attains the jhānas. 2017, Keren Arbel, Early Buddhist Meditation, page 106
   If taste is, in Sibleyan terms, an ability involving perceptiveness, sensitivity, discrimination and appreciation, this suggests that it should be directed towards a certain set of objects, and that there is clear room for error and critical debate: about which objects—and which responses—are in fact correct, and which provide evidence of the presence of tasteful discrimination. 2018, Jane Forsey, On Taste: Aesthetic Exchanges, page viii
   Among those who are purified by their good deeds, there are four kinds of men who worship me: the world-weary, the seeker for knowledge, the seeker for happiness and the man of spiritual discrimination. The man of discrimination is the highest of these. 2019, Rick South, The Odes of God
4. (countable, obsolete) That which discriminates; a distinguishing mark, a characteristic.
   He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will be confused, and how many particular features and discriminations will be compressed and conglobated into one gross and general idea. 1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland - Volume 1, page 239
   But even if this difference should be still greater, it could never be admitted as forming a specific distinction. For the horns not only differ in individuals of the same species, but in the same individuals at different ages. If we were to attempt to arrange animals solely by their horns, the discriminations would be as endless as uncertain. 1789, William Coxe, “Letter 41”, in Travels in Switzerland: In a Series of Letters to William Melmoth, Esq. from William Coxe,[…]In Three Volumes[…], page 52
   These seem to me their most obvious and striking causes, and certainly sufficient to distinguish them from each other: but let the most acute metaphysician, place in one point of view whatever may, in any way, mark the nice boundaries which separate them from each other, and then let his discriminations be compared, for clear, and strongly marked difference and opposition, with those I have stated to exist between the beautiful, and the picturesque; and if his discriminations are not more clear, and more strongly marked, but on the contrary much less so, why should they have a power, which is denied to mine? 1796, Sir Uvedale Price, An Essay on the Picturesque, page 236
   The great discriminations of land are three, and it concerns us to know whether it is poor, or rich, or in a middle state. 1800, Marcus Terentius Varro, The Three Books of M. Terentius Varro Concerning Agriculture, page 50