discreet

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The adjective discreet ( Latin discernere 'separate', 'distinguish') was borrowed in the 16th century from the French discret 'secret'. Generally used it means “secretly”, “cautiously”, also “treated inconspicuously / executed”, presumably derived from the use of discretus for “able to perceive differently”. Also in the 16th century, the abstraction of discretion for “secrecy”, “tactful restraint” emerged. The counter-formations indiscreet and indiscretion for “not concealed”, “tactless”, “intrusive” or “chatty”, “tactlessness”, “intrusive” emerged in the 18th century.

In science and technology

In science and technology one understands by discrete "distinguishable", "separable", "countable", "taken from a tiered set of values"; see also digital signal and quantization . So comes the adjective z. B. in the following terms:

Mathematical abstractions that are too discrete are discretion and discretization . The opposite of discrete in scientific use is continuous (see continuity and continuum ).

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: discrete  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Duden , keyword “discreet”.