Discrimination

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/

Definitions

1. The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability
2. The practice of treating individuals or groups unfairly based on characteristics like race, gender, age, or disability, or the ability to recognize and distinguish differences between things
3. Unfair treatment directed toward people because of their identity or background, or the capacity to perceive subtle distinctions among various elements

Etymology: The most striking thing about "discrimination" is how neutral it once was: for most of its history it meant the act of telling things apart, and a good eye or fine judgment was praised as "discrimination" with no hint of blame. The word comes from Latin "discriminatio," the action noun of "discriminare," meaning "to distinguish" or "to separate," and it entered English in the 17th century as a learned borrowing. The unfair sense developed later, as the word's focus shifted from perceiving differences to acting on them. Someone with discrimination in the older sense could tell a fine wine from a cheap one; the newer sense describes treating people worse because of who they are. The meaning changed through the same verb-to-action-noun pattern that gives English many of its abstract nouns, with the moral weight arriving from how the distinguishing was carried out.

Synonyms: prejudice, bias, differentiation, distinction, inequity

Antonyms: equality, fairness, impartiality, tolerance, acceptance