Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In Scots law, to decree; judge; adjudge.
  • To discern; discriminate.
  • In Scots law, to decree; pass judgment: an essential word in all decrees and interlocutors.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To perceive, discern, or decide.
  • transitive verb (Scots Law) To decree; to adjudge.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Decide; determine; decree.
  • verb Discern.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in late Middle English circa 1425; from the French décerner, from the Latin dēcernō ("I decide”, (law): “I pronounce a decision"), from  ("of”; “from”, “away from") + cernō ("I separate”, “I 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 sixteenth century; hence, in English also, decern is found with the sense discern.

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