decern

Meanings

1. To decide or determine (a matter disputed or doubtful), with simple object, with infinitive or object clause, or intransitive.
2. To decree (something) by judicial sentence.
3. To decree by judicial sentence that something be done.
4. To decree a person etc. to be or to do something by judicial sentence. (in the phrase “to decern in”, obsolete) To mulct in by decree of court.
5. To discern; to distinguish or separate by differences (things that differ, or one thing from another).
6. To distinguish; to discriminate between.
7. To see distinctly (with the eyes or the mind); distinguish (an object or fact); discern.

Etymology

First attested in late Middle English circa 1425; from the French décerner, from the Latin dēcernō (“to decide, pronounce a decision”), from dē (“of, from, away from”) + cernō (“to separate, distinguish”), whence the English cern. In Old French, the forms of décerner were frequently conflated with those of descerner, discerner; the two verbs were not clearly distinguished until the 16th century; hence, in English also, decern is found with the sense discern.