indiscriminate

Etymology

It is formed from English in- (“not”) + discriminate.^[2][3][4][5] That adjective is first recorded in 1626, some years after this word,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the second element directly from Latin discrīminātus,^[6][7] the past participle of discrīminō (“to divide, separate, distinguish”),^[3][2] from discrīmen (“division, distinction”).^[2][3] Etymonline derives the noun from discernō (“to separate, distinguish”), from dis- (“off, away”) and cernō (“to distinguish, sift”), from Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sieve”).^[3] Johnson had given Latin indiscriminatus as the source.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Without making distinctions: the OED's first quotation, of 1598 in Bishop Hall's Virgidemiarum, uses the word like an adverb, as the equivalent of indiscriminately.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the adjective's sense "not marked by careful distinction" to about 1598,^[4] and the Oxford Dictionary of English gives the late 16th century, for "haphazard, not selective".^[7]

Semantic evolution

The ordinary adjectival use, of things done without discernment or distinction, is not recorded in the OED until 1649, in Bishop Taylor's Great Exemplar,^[2] and Etymonline likewise dates the word to the 1640s.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "undistinguishable; not marked with any note of distinction".^[8] The word was applied to people themselves, those who make no distinctions, from 1792 in the OED,^[2] and likewise from the late 18th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[6] Modern dictionaries also record it for what is merely jumbled or confused, and for what is unrestrained or promiscuous.^[9][4]

Timeline

• 1598 – used like an adverb, meaning without distinction.^[2]
• 1649 – of things, done without making distinctions; haphazard.^[2] Etymonline dates this to the 1640s.^[3]
• 1792 – of people, making no distinctions.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Done without careful judgment or without making distinctions; random, not selective: the indiscriminate felling of the old forest.^[9][4][2]
2. Of a person, not discerning; making no distinctions: an admirer indiscriminate in her enthusiasm.^[2][6]
3. Unrestrained; promiscuous.^[4][9]
4. Not separated into distinct parts; jumbled, confused.^[4][9]

Word family

• indiscriminately
• indiscriminateness

Related words

• discriminate
• discrimination
• discern

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins