liminal

adj
/ˈlɪmən(ə)l/

Etymology

From Latin limināris, from līmen (“doorstep, threshold; doorway, entrance; beginning, commencement”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Līmen is possibly derived from līmus (“askew; sideways”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l- (“to bend, bow; elbow”)) + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension) (from Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ (suffix forming action nouns or result nouns from verbs)).

  1. derived from *-mn̥
  2. derived from *Heh₃l- — “to bend, bow; elbow
  3. derived from limināris

Definitions

  1. Of or pertaining to an entrance or threshold.

    • [S]paces such as the threshold of a door are "liminal," lying between otherwise defined areas without belonging to either of them. All over the world, […] liminal situations are associated with demons.
  2. Pertaining to or in a state that is in-between or transitional between two (or more)…

    Pertaining to or in a state that is in-between or transitional between two (or more) other states, while belonging to neither; pertaining to or in a state such as to be neither definitively in a particular other state or category nor definitively outside it.

  3. Of or pertaining to a beginning or first stage of a process.

    • Every stimulus must reach a certain intensity before any appreciable sensation results. This point is known as the threshold or liminal intensity.
    • If it felt like a passing of the torch, then on a night of silent jubilee for City it was also a liminal moment for Foden himself: the point at which he stopped being potential. When he stopped being the future and became the present.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for liminal. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA