discriminate
- 01 C2 Proficiency
to be able to judge what is high quality or good.
to exercise nice or refined perception; to be discerning in matters of taste or quality.
Simple“A discriminating buyer can easily see the quality of this handmade leather.”
In context“The gallery caters to a clientele that can discriminate between mass-produced prints and genuine fine art photography.”
UsageOften appears as the present participle 'discriminating' used as an adjective.
Synonyms
“A judge ruled the policy illegally discriminated on the basis of nationality.”
“It sets no limit on tariff rates and lets the president discriminate among exporting countries.”
First attested in 1615; borrowed from Latin discrīminātus, perfect passive participle of discrīminō (“to divide, separate, distinguish”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from discrīmen (“a space between, division, separation, distinction”), from discernō (“to divide, separate, distinguish, discern”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.