liminaladj.
/ˈlɪmᵻnl/, U.S. /ˈlɪmᵻnəl/ 1. That has the lowest amount necessary to produce a particular effect; minimal; insignificant. In early use spec. (Psychology): of or relating to a limen (limen n.), relating to the point beyond which a sensation becomes too faint to be experienced .
ΚΠ
1875 A. Gamgee in tr. L. Hermann Elements Human Physiol. Pref. p. viii In the exposition of Fechner's psycho-physical law I have adopted as the equivalent of the German ‘Schwellenwerth’, the term ‘liminal intensity’, which was suggested to me by Dr. Sanderson.
1895 E. B. Titchener tr. O. Külpe Outl. Psychol. 243 We may also introduce the concept of the limen, defining the just noticeable deviation from indifference as a liminal pleasantness or unpleasantness.
1921 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 77 543 All cases evidenced a distinctly normal reaction, for the dosage employed,i.e., slight salivation with liminal perspiration.
1945 Federation Proc. (Federation Amer. Soc. Exper. Biol.) 4 31/1 Liminal faradic excitation of the cerebellar cortex reveals somatotopic localization in the anterior lobe and lobulus simplex of decerebrate animals.
1952 G. Sarton Hist. Sci. xvi. 401 Plato was also submitted to Oriental influences, but in his case those influences were liminal rather than continuous.
1968 V. B. Mountcastle Med. Physiol. (ed. 12) II. lxiii. 1429/2 The pain..subsides quickly, an event attributable to..a drop in frequency below a liminal level.
1993 T. C. Boyle in New Yorker 15 Feb. 82/2 The liminal smile, the coy arch of the eyebrows.
2. Characterized by being on a boundary or threshold, esp. by being transitional or intermediate between two states, situations, etc.In later use, influenced by sense 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > gradual change > [adjective]
transitory1592
transitive1660
transitional1663
transitionary1685
gradual1692
gradative1840
gradational1842
unabrupt1865
liminala1916
a1916 T. M. Kettle Ways of War (1917) 232 So much is liminal; it lies across the threshold of any temple of peace that can be imagined.
1980 J. A. Hostetler Amish Society (ed. 3) iii. xiv. 312 As tourists they occupy a liminal territory.
1996 Éire-Ireland Spring 156 We conceptualize international borders and zones, exemplified by life at the Irish border as liminal states between the more ordered, structured and unpolluted conditions of nations and states.
2011 Church Times 11 Nov. 13/1 Airports are places of waiting and uncertainty—liminal, indeterminate spaces, caught between one world and another.
3. Cultural Anthropology. Of or relating to a transitional or intermediate state between culturally defined stages of a person's life, esp. as marked by a ritual or rite of passage; characterized by liminality (liminality n.).
ΚΠ
1964 V. W. Turner in Southwestern Jrnl. Anthropol. 20 391 (title of mimeograph) Betwixt and between: the liminal period in Rites de passage.
1967 V. W. Turner Forest of Symbols iii. 77 The liminal condition between two periods of active social life.
1990 R. Bly Iron John vii. 194 Such ritual space can also be called liminal space.
2005 T. K. Beal Roadside Relig. i. 47 As wilderness experience and as pilgrimage, Holy Land USA may be understood in terms of what religionists call a liminal phenomenon.
Derivatives
ˈliminally adv.
ΚΠ
1900 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 11 258 Apparatus for perception of forms liminally different from their background.
1979 Anthropos 74 524 The liminally characterized protagonists embody that vague and somewhat troubling ambiguity..between rightful authority and abused power.
2002 G. Levine Dying to Know viii. 198 Deronda again lives liminally, somewhere between the two narratives and the two ways of knowing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1875