Marginal
Brit. /ˈmɑːdʒɪnl/ , /ˈmɑːdʒn̩l/ , U.S. /ˈmɑrdʒənəl
Etymology: < post-classical Latin marginalis littoral A. adj.
1. Written or printed in the margin of a page; esp. in marginal note, marginal reference. In quot. 1611: at the margin of the page (rather than indented).
1573 R. Lever Arte of Reason iv. xxii. 198, I thinke it needlesse, here to repeate, how many kindes of gaynsettes there bee:..bycause it may suffice the diligent reader, to be referred by oure marginall note.
1576 A. Fleming Panoplie Epist. 34 (margin) Thes words are..made plaine, in the first Epistle, Li. 6. in a marginall note.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Marc, Looke the next marginall word.
1641 Milton Reason Church-govt. 41 To club quotations with men whose learning and beleif lies in marginal stuffings.
a1656 J. Hales Golden Remains (1673) i. 278 That so you may bring them [sc. scattered notes] together by marginal references.
1683 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises II. 227 Marginal Notes come down the side (or sides, If the Page have two Columns).
a1732 T. Boston Crook in Lot (1805) 78 Here there is a line reading, and a marginal.
1733 D. Neal Hist. Puritans II. 48 Mr. Canne, author of the Marginal References to the Bible.
1781 J. Bentham Corr. (1971) III. 26 The marginal-contenting..is a sort of hobby-horse exercise of mine.
1860 Dickens Let. 2 May (1997) IX. 245, I thought the marginal references over-done.
1885 Act 48 Vict. c. 15 Sched. ii. Precept §35 You are..to publish..the register with your marginal additions.
1935 D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night iii. 45 I’m afraid it’s rather full of marginal balloons and interlineations.
1962 N. Davis & C. L. Wrenn Eng. & Medieval Stud. 187 These facts..lend force to Tatlock’s marginal and unsupported comment.
1988 National Trust Mag. Spring 13/1 Burghley’s confident marginal comments are footnotes to history.
a. Relating to an edge, border, boundary, or limit; situated at or affecting the extreme edge of an area, mass, etc. Of a plant: growing at or near the boundary of a habitat, esp. at the edge of woodland or (spec.) a body of water (cf. sense B. 4).
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words Marginal, belonging to the margin or margent, i. the brink or brim of any thing.
1831 D. Brewster Treat. Optics vi. 54 The central parts of the lens..refract the rays too little, and the marginal parts too much.
1872 W. Black Strange Adventures Phaeton vii. 100 A marginal growth of willow and flag.
1882 Garden 25 Mar. 202/2 Lobelias..are most useful, as marginal plants for flower beds and borders.
1892 Photogr. Ann. 229 The lenses are of special optical glass, constructed with the nicest precision of curvature, so maintaining goodmarginal definition.
1893 S. Lane-Poole Aurengzib xii. 190 The extreme point south of Trichinopoly, and the marginal possessions of the Portuguese.
1925 J. Laird Our Minds & their Bodies ii. 31 For scientific purposes the marginal or borderline cases are usually the most instructive.
1934 H. C. Warren Dict. Psychol. 159/1 Marginal contrast, an accentuated type of simultaneous contrast, which occurs in regions close to the boundary between two contrasting areas.
1957 R. G. Collomb Dict. Mountaineering 52 The changing angle of slope over which it [sc. a glacier] flows causes marginal crevasses and transverse crevasses in mid-stream.
1962 M. L. Haselgrove Photographers’ Dict. 141 (caption) A beam parallel to the principal axis will not be brought to a focus at the principal focus; marginal rays will converge to M while axial rays converge to A.
1990 Amateur Gardening 7 Apr. 18/4 At the edge of the water there grow the marginal plants, these like to have their feet in water but reach up to enjoy the sun and air.
a. Sociol. Of an individual or social group: isolated from or not conforming to the dominant society or culture; (perceived as being) on the edge of a society or social unit; Also: partly belonging to two differing social groups or cultures but not fully integrated into either. See also marginal mann.In first quot. with admixture of sense A. 2a.
1925 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 31 36 The marginal tribes on the periphery of an area are no longer truly representative of it.
1949 Persona 1 6 (title) The marginal position of the physically handicapped in a competitive society.
1964 R. D. Hopper in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 324 The Creole marginal group constituted about 10 per cent of the population at the time of the revolution.
1970 N. A. Victoria in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. xv. 574 When Batista was overthrown, the politically marginal classes comprised almost the whole Cuban people.
1987 D. Clandfield Canad. Film iv. 77 Each featured a marginal child (one an autistic boy, the other a street brat) in the title role and set their parallel fantasy-world on a course towards self-destruction.
1993 Chicago Tribune 16 Apr. ii. 2/2 Richard Duntz held sway over the other marginal types who hung out on the steps of Town Hall—before his brother torched it.
b. Of an aspect of culture, the arts, etc.: unorthodox; removed from the mainstream; having a limited following.
a1988 R. Williams Polit. of Modernism (1989) ii. 46 So nearly complete was this vast cultural reformation that, at the levels directly concerned—the succeeding metropolitan formations of learning and practice—what had once been defiantly marginal..became, in its turn, orthodox.
1991 Twenty Twenty Spring 67/2 An admirable small label dedicated to all things marginal is reVision.
1993 Guardian 19 Oct. ii. 5/3 An increasingly ‘hit-driven’ market is crowding out small, marginal and maverick films.
1999 Afr. News Service (Electronic ed.) 22 Jan. I managed to catch the tail-end of one of the strongest marginal theatre forces in our country.
7. Of minor importance, having little effect; incidental, subsidiary (sometimes with to).
1952 Times 26 Jan. 5/6 The possibilities of immediate change are marginal.
1955 Times 11 June 9/6 Most of the changes are..shifts of emphasis rather than reversals of previous policy; they are important but they aremarginal.
1959 Times 14 Jan. 3/6 There is no major writer who uses the stage as his preferred medium of creation… Mr. Graham Greene and Mr. Angus Wilson, for example, still seem marginal to the drama.
1969 Listener 16 Jan. 92/3 The lack of a character with which we can identify—..the soldiers..remain uncharacterised and marginal—soon stills our wish to be emotionally involved.
1984 P. Zweig Walt Whitman (1986) 18 His reputation was at best that of a marginal poet.
1990 A. S. Byatt Possession xxiv. 437 He felt marginal. Marginal to her family, her feminism, her ease with her social peers.
The Marginal Life 