Other forms: discerned, discerning, discerns
To discern something is to just manage to see or recognise it when it is faint or subtle. Discern a shape in the fog. It was hard to discern any pattern.
It is formal and it always implies effort — nothing obvious is discerned. The second sense is about judgement: to discern between two things is to tell them apart, and a discerning person has good taste and notices differences. Discernment is the noun for that quality. Note the pronunciation, dih-SURN with a soft c, and that discernible means able to be made out, which is common in the negative: no discernible difference.
1verbdiscernTo see or make out something with difficulty.
“She could just discern a light on the far shore.”
2verbrecogniseTo recognise a difference or a pattern.
“It is hard to discern any policy behind the decisions.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
discern is a way of perceiving.
Also accepted in games: perceive, detect
Latin discernere is dis-, apart, plus cernere, to sift or separate — the same verb behind certain, secret and concern. Discerning is sifting, which is exactly what the eye does in poor light.
Proto-Indo-European
*krey-
Latin
discernere — to separate, divide, distinguish, discern
Old French
discerner
Middle English
discernen
English, today
discern
Built from
From Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, from Latin discernere (“to separate, divide, distinguish, discern”), from dis- (“apart”) + cernere (“to distinguish”); see certain.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA