Indiscrimination

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The absence of differentiation among individuals or items leads to a failure to appreciate their unique characteristics
2. A condition where all entities are treated equally, disregarding varied traits, often fostering a uniform approach
3. The practice of not distinguishing between different people or things, leading to a general or unselective approach

Etymology: Indiscrimination is a plain formation: the prefix "in-", meaning "not", attached to "discrimination". The prefix descends from a Proto-Indo-European root for negation that passed into Latin as "in-" and from there into English, where it was used freely to make new words from existing ones. "Discrimination" itself came into English from Latin "discriminatio", meaning a separating or distinguishing, from "discriminare", to divide or separate. The result is a word whose literal sense, "the state of not separating things", is the reverse of how "discrimination" is most often used today. A word that once meant the careful sorting of things by their differences is here made to name the failure to sort them at all, so the negative form describes an unselective approach, one that treats distinct people or things as if they were all alike.

Synonyms: bias, partiality, inequality, inequity, favoritism

Antonyms: equality, fairness, justice, impartiality, objectivity