Picture two things that look alike being set side by side, and someone the difference and drawing a line between them. The act of telling apart is where the word starts, and by itself it is neutral: telling good tea from bad is this, and so is sorting people into groups. What changes everything is where the line is drawn, and how the two sides get treated afterwards.
From the word’s history
From Late Latin discriminationem, from discriminare 'to divide, separate', going back through discrimen to discernere 'to separate, set apart, distinguish', from dis- 'off, away' + cernere 'distinguish, separate, sift'. In English the noun is first 'the making of distinctions' (1640s); 'discernment' appears in 1814; the sense of unfair treatment of a class of people is first recorded in 1866 in American English.
來自晚期拉丁文 discriminationem，源頭是 discriminare「劃分、分開」，再往上是 discernere（dis- 分開 + cernere 分辨、篩選）。英文 1640 年代先有「做出區分」的意思，「辨別力、鑑賞力」約 1814 年，而「對某一群人做出不利的差別對待」——今天最常見的那個意思——最早記錄在 1866 年的美式英語。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entries 'discrimination (n.)' and 'discriminate (v.)'
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原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
discriminationnoun/dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/
- 1
Discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and make correct decisions.
- Have you felt the weight of the considerations which have been presented, in order to show the importance of discrimination on the subject of revealed truth?
- An earthquake here rolls harmless through the land, And Thou art good because the chimneys stand— There templed cities sink into the sea, And damp survivors, howling as they flee, Skip to the hills and hold a celebration In honor of Thy wise discrimination.
- 2
Differential treatment of an individual or group to their disadvantage; treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality; prejudice; bigotry.
- sexual or racial discrimination
- reverse discrimination
- 3
The quality of being discriminating; acute discernment, especially in matters of good taste.
- Near-synonym: tastefulness
- You are a man of discrimination,” said Qunk, “I admire that girl a little myself, and, entre nous, I think that I'm a bit of a favourite in that quarter.”
- 4
obsoleteThat which discriminates; a distinguishing mark, a characteristic.
- He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will be confused, and how many particular features and discriminations will be compressed and conglobated into one gross and general idea.
- But even if this difference should be still greater, it could never be admitted as forming a specific distinction. For the horns not only differ in individuals of the same species, but in the same individuals at different ages. If we were to attempt to arrange animals solely by their horns, the discriminations would be as endless as uncertain.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。