Discreet & Discrete

Discreet (pronounced dih-skreet)

(1) Judicious in conduct or speech, especially with regard to respecting privacy or maintaining silence about delicate matters; prudent; circumspect.

(2) Showing prudence and circumspection; decorous:

(3) Modestly unobtrusive; unostentatious:

1325–1375: From the Middle English discret from the Anglo-French & Old French discret (prudent, discerning) from the Medieval Latin discrētus (separated), past participle of discernere (to discern), the construct being dis- + crē- (separate, distinguish (variant stem of cernere)) + -tus, the Latin past participle suffix.  Related forms are the noun discreetly and the adverb discreetness.

Discrete (pronounced dih-skreet)

(1) Apart or detached from others; separate; distinct; that which can be perceived individually and not as connected to, or part of something else.

(2) Consisting of or characterized by distinct or individual parts; discontinuous.

(3) In mathematics, of a topology or topological space, having the property that every subset is an open set; defined only for an isolated set of points; using only arithmetic and algebra; not involving calculus.

(4) In statistics (of a variable), having consecutive values not so infinitesimally close, so that its analysis requires summation rather than integration.

(5) In electrical engineering, having separate electronic components (diodes, transistors, resisters etc) as opposed to integrated circuitry.

(6) In audio engineering, separate and independent channels of audio, as opposed to multiplexed stereo or quadraphonic, or other multi-channel sound.(7) In linguistics, disjunctive, containing a disjunctive or discretive clause.

(8) In angelology, the technical description of the hierarchies and orders of angels

1350–1400: Middle English from the Latin discrētus (separated; set apart) past participle of discernō (divide), the construct being dis- + cernō (sift); a doublet of discreet.  The Middle English adoption came via the Old French discret.  Related forms are the noun discretely and the adverb discreteness.

Strange words

An etymological tangle, it was the influence of the Middle French discret (prudent, discerning) which saw discreet evolve to mean “wise person” in Angle-French.  The Latin source was discrētus (past participle of the verb discernere (to discern; to separate, distinguish, mark off, show differences between)) and in post-Classical Latin discrētus also acquired the sense “prudent, wise,” possibly arising from association with the noun discrētiō, which shows a similar semantic development: physical separation, to discernment, to capacity to discern.

Discrete (apart or detached from others; separate; distinct) was originally a spelling doublet of discreet, sharing meanings, both deriving from the same Latin source.  The spelling discrete is closer in form to the Latin discrētus and is probably an attempt to differentiate discreet from discrete and one has always been more prolific than the other, dictionaries for centuries tending to offer five time the citations for “prudent, circumspect” compared with the sense “separate, distinct” although the history of the latter is long in statistics, angelology, astronomy, and mathematics.  It wasn’t until the late sixteenth century that discrete became restricted to its present meanings, leaving the spelling discreet to predominate in its own use.

In a way not uncommon in English, pre-modern spellings proliferated: discreyt, discrite, discreit, discreete and others existed but, by the late sixteenth century, the standard meanings became discrete in the sense of “individual” and discreet in the sense of “tactful”.  Technically, it should have been the other way around because the Latin ending –etus usually becomes –ete in English.

The Assumption of the Virgin (1475-1476), by Francesco Botticini (1446–1498), tempera on wood panel, National Gallery London.  Commissioned as the altarpiece for a Florentine church, it portrays Mary's assumption and shows the discrete three hierarchies and nine orders of angels.