Both Uses of
discriminate
in
Oryx and Crake
- After his indiscriminate adolescence he'd preferred sad women, delicate and breakable, women who'd been messed up and who needed him.†
p. 100.5 *indiscriminate = without recognition of differencesstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indiscriminate means not and reverses the meaning of discriminate. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Instead it had been indiscriminately promiscuous, had not pair-bonded, and had spent most of its waking life, when it wasn't eating, engaged in copulation.†
p. 293.9indiscriminately = done without recognition of differencesstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indiscriminately means not and reverses the meaning of discriminately. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(discriminate as in: suffered discrimination) to treat people of different groups differently -- especially unfair treatment due to race, religion or gender
-
(2)
(discriminate as in: discriminating taste) to recognize or perceive differences -- especially fine distinctions