different between discriminate vs signalize

English

Etymology

From Latin discriminatus, past participle of discriminare (“to divide, separate, distinguish”), from discrimen (“a space between, division, separation, distinction”), from discerno (“to divide, separate, distinguish, discern”); see discern, discreet, discrete. Compare crime.

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /d?s?k??m?ne?t/
• (adjective) IPA^(key): /d?s?k??m?n?t/

Verb

discriminate (third-person singular simple present discriminates, present participle discriminating, simple past and past participle discriminated)

1. (intransitive) To make distinctions.

2. (intransitive, construed with against) To make decisions based on prejudice.

3. (transitive) To set apart as being different; to mark as different; to separate from another by discerning differences; to distinguish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowper to this entry?)

Usage notes

Due to the strong pejorative connotations of sense of “decide based on prejudice”, care should be taken in using the term in the sense “distinguish, make distinctions”, and this sense is primarily used in formal discourse; synonyms are generally used instead.

Synonyms

• (make distinctions): distinguish, differentiate; see also Thesaurus:tell apart
• (make decisions based on prejudice): disfavor

Antonyms

• (make decisions based on prejudice): favor

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

discriminate (comparative more discriminate, superlative most discriminate)

1. Having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.

   • Nevertheless it is certain, that oisters, and cockles, and mussels, which move not, have no discriminate sex

Further reading

• discriminate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• discriminate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Translations

Italian

Verb

discriminate

1. second-person plural present indicative of discriminare
2. second-person plural imperative of discriminare
3. feminine plural of discriminato

Anagrams

• dimenticarsi

Latin

Verb

discr?min?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of discr?min?

English

Etymology

From signal +? -ize.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s??n?la?z/

Verb

signalize (third-person singular simple present signalizes, present participle signalizing, simple past and past participle signalized)

1. (transitive, now rare) To distinguish, to make noteworthy. [from 17th c.]
   • 1789, Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life, Penguin 1990, p. 121:

     [T]he reign of the Tudors was often signalized by the valour of our soldiers and sailors […] .

   • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

     It is this passion which drives men to all the ways we see in use of signalizing themselves.

2. (transitive, now rare) To display or make known (a quality, attribute etc.); to call attention to. [from 17th c.]
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. II, ch. 68:

     He likewise pretended to ridicule the use of fire-arms, which confounded all the distinctions of skill and address, and deprived a combatant of the opportunity of signalizing his personal prowess.

3. (transitive, now rare) To point out; to take special note of. [from 17th c.]
   • 1956, Winston Churchill, History of the English-Speaking Peoples, I.5:

     This expression rex Anglorum is rightly signalised by historians as a milestone in our history.

4. (transitive, chiefly nautical) To communicate with by means of a signal. [from 19th c.]

   a ship signalizes its consort

5. (transitive) To indicate; to be a sign of. [from 19th c.]
   • 1957, Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

     And yet... looking here at this bottle which by its number signalized the day when Colonel Freeleigh had stumbled and fallen six feet into the earth, Douglas could not find so much as a gram of dark sediment […]

6. (transitive, chiefly Canada, US) To furnish (a traffic intersection) with a traffic signal. [from 20th c.]

Derived terms

• signalization