discern

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English discernen, also descernen and decernen,^[2] borrowed from Old French discerner (“to distinguish, separate”),^[3][4][5][6] recorded in Anglo-Norman from about 1300,^[7] and directly borrowed from Latin discernō (“to separate, set apart; to distinguish, perceive”).^[6][3][5][8] The Latin verb is formed from dis- (“apart, off”) and cernō (“to sift, separate, distinguish”),^{[3][4][9][10]} so that it meant literally to separate by sifting.^[11] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the simple verb to Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sieve”),^[3][4] and Hoad relates it to the Greek verb that gave crisis.^[9] The OED compares Catalan discernir, Spanish discernir, Portuguese discernir and Italian discernere, the Italian verb recorded before 1292.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To perceive or recognize a fact, to understand clearly: before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi.^[6] Barnhart dates discernen, to perceive or distinguish, to about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,^[5] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense "to separate" lies behind all the English uses: from separating things the verb passed to telling them apart, and then to perceiving them at all.^[11][3] By the end of the 14th century English already had the mental sense (to understand), the sense of distinguishing between things (about 1400, in Patience) and the visual sense, to make out with the eyes (about 1405, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale).^[6] Chaucer used the verb eight times.^[12] In the 15th century it also meant "to decide, decree", recorded from about 1425 to 1630; the OED thinks this sense may partly come from confusion with decern, although Latin already had it.^[6] From 1539, in the Great Bible, it was used of perceiving with a sense other than sight.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "to descry; to see; to discover" first and "to judge; to have knowledge of" second,^[13] and the sense "to exercise discernment, to judge" lasted until the late 19th century.^[6] A noun discern, discernment, was formed from the verb in 1599.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – discernen, to perceive, distinguish, in Chaucer's Boethius.^[5]
• before 1400 – to perceive or recognize a fact; to understand.^[6]
• c. 1400 – to recognize a difference, to distinguish between things.^[6]
• c. 1405 – to see, to make out by sight.^[6]
• c. 1425 – to decide, decree (obsolete by 1630).^[6]
• 1484 – to distinguish one thing from another, in Caxton.^[6]
• 1539 – to perceive by a sense other than sight.^[6]
• 1599 – noun, discernment, perception.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make out something faint, hidden or distant with the eyes: They could just discern a boat on the horizon.^[10][6]
2. To detect with a sense other than sight: She discerned a faint smell of smoke.^[10][6]
3. To perceive or recognize clearly with the mind; to understand: It was hard to discern what he really wanted.^[14][10][6]
4. To recognize a difference; to distinguish one thing from another or between things: to discern right from wrong.^[14][6][2]
5. (obsolete, 1425–1892) To judge with discernment; to have knowledge of.^[6][13]

Word family

• discerner
• discernibly
• undiscerned
• discernible
• discernment
• indiscernible

Related words

• discreet
• discrete
• discriminate
• decern
• decree
• concern
• certain
• crime
• secret
• crisis

Usage notes

The OED notes that dictionaries from the late 18th to the end of the 19th century gave only the pronunciation with /z/, /dɪˈzɜːn/; early 20th-century dictionaries made /s/ an alternative, and the order was reversed from the mid 20th century.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins