Discriminatory

How to spell discriminatory

14 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce discriminatory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does discriminatory mean?

1. adjectiveTreating a person or group unfairly or differently, especially on grounds such as race, age, sex, or disability.

Discriminatory in a sentence

• The tribunal ruled that the firm's hiring practice was clearly discriminatory.

• Employees filed a complaint about a discriminatory pay structure that favoured senior managers.

Where does discriminatory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb discriminare, meaning 'to divide' or 'to set apart', which was built on discrimen, a noun for a dividing line or a point of distinction. That noun in turn came from discernere, 'to separate' or 'to distinguish', formed from dis- 'apart' and cernere 'to sift or separate'. In its earliest English use 'discriminate' simply meant to perceive a difference between things, a neutral act of careful judgement, and that older sense survives in phrases like a discriminating palate. The adjective 'discriminatory' grew from this stem with the suffix -atory, marking something that relates to discriminating, and over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it narrowed to its now dominant social meaning: treatment that unfairly distinguishes between people. The same crimin element sits inside 'discern' and even hides a cousin in 'crime', and the doubled idea of 'sifting apart' is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps a single c followed by the -min- of discrimen.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• crimin (from Latin discrimen: a dividing line, distinction)
• -atory (adjective suffix: relating to or tending toward)