Etymologically
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discriminatory

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪsˈkɹɪmɪnət(ə)ɹɪ/, /dɪˌskɹɪmɪˈneɪt(ə)rɪ/[1]
  • US: /dɪsˈkɹɪmɪnəˌtɔɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English discriminate + -ory.[2][3][4] The OED compares the earlier discriminator, discriminative and discriminating.[2] Discriminate is from Latin discrīminō (“to divide, separate, distinguish”),[2][3][5] from discrīmen (“interval, distinction, difference”),[3][2] from discernō (“to separate, distinguish, perceive”),[3][5] formed from dis- (“off, away”) and cernō (“to distinguish, separate, sift”),[3] from Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sieve”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Perceiving or making distinctions: 1745, in Reflections upon Church-government.[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to 1803, and Dictionary.com to 1820–30.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word took on a neutral economic sense, originally American: of a duty or tax, varying so as to treat different classes of goods or taxpayers more or less favourably (1820).[2][7] From 1896, again first in the United States, it described treatment that is unjust or prejudicial to a person or group, especially on grounds of race or sex;[2] Etymonline dates the racial sense only by 1954.[3] This sense follows that of the verb discriminate, whose adverse use, to make distinctions prejudicial to a class of persons, is first recorded in American English in 1866.[3] The older sense "making fine distinctions", shared with discriminative, survives in Collins.[8]

Timeline

  • 1745 – perceiving or making distinctions.[2][6]
  • 1820 – economics, of a tax or duty: varying between classes of goods or taxpayers.[2]
  • 1896 – treating people unjustly on grounds such as race.[2]
  • 1954 – racial prejudice sense, according to Etymonline.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Treating a person or group unfairly, especially because of race, sex or religion; showing prejudice: discriminatory hiring rules.[8][6][2]
  2. Of a tax or duty, applied differently to different classes of goods or taxpayers.[2][6]
  3. Able to make fine distinctions; discriminating.[8][2]
  4. (statistics) Of a test, unbiased.[8]

Word family

  • discriminatorily
  • undiscriminatory
  • nondiscriminatory

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins