discriminatio

Forms

discrīminātiō f (genitive discrīminātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin discrīminō (“to divide, separate”) + -tiō.^[1][2][3] The verb is from discrīmen (“separating line, distinction”), which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of cernō (“to sift, distinguish, decide”).^[4] He traces that verb back to Proto-Italic *krin-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sift, separate”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Varro,^[5] whose De lingua Latina has the plural at two places only by a conjecture of Christ.^[3] The first certain use is in the grammarian Diomedes, for the distinction by which a god or a man is named with a name of his own.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Grammarians used it for a distinction or separation: Consentius says that impersonal verbs exclude any distinction of persons.^[2] Augustine says that judgement is sometimes called discriminatio, since it is the giving of good things to the good and bad things to the bad.^[2] In rhetoric it rendered Ancient Greek παραδιαστολή (paradiastolḗ), the figure that sets opposite ideas against each other.^[6][3]

In Medieval Latin it meant division, as of the hours, and the separation of the good from the wicked at the Last Judgement;^[7] British sources use it for an interval of time and for a decision.^[8] Ecclesiastical Latin also gives it the sense of discernment, wise judgement.^[9] English borrowed it in the 1640s as discrimination,^[10] and Italian discriminazione also goes back to the Late Latin word.^[11]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro may have the plural, if Christ's conjecture is right.^[3][5]
• 2nd half 4th century AD – Diomedes uses it of the distinction made by a proper name.^[2][3][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine calls judgement a discriminatio.^[2][5]
• 1196 – An English court record uses it for a judicial decision.^[8]
• 1640s – English borrows it as discrimination.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Distinction, separation, division.^[2][3][12]
2. (rhetoric) The figure that contrasts opposite thoughts, Greek παραδιαστολή (paradiastolḗ).^[6][3]
3. (Late Latin) Judgement, as the separation of the good from the bad.^[2][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) An interval of time.^[8]
5. (Medieval Latin) A decision.^[8]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Discernment, wise judgement.^[9]

Related words

• discrīmen
• cernō
• English discrimination

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
12. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.