Marginalizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To exclude certain individuals or groups from mainstream society, thereby diminishing their importance and influence
2. To place individuals or groups in positions of lesser significance within the social order, often reducing their visibility and voice
3. Treats someone or a group as insignificant or less important, often by pushing them to the edges of a social or political context

Etymology: Long before it described people pushed to society's edges, the root of this word was the blank space around a page. The Latin "margo" meant "edge" or "border," and English "margin" kept that physical sense, so a "marginal" note was something scribbled in the page's border. Those notes were often secondary to the main text, and that sense of "off to the side" gradually gave the adjective its meaning of minor or peripheral. The verb adds the suffix "-ize," borrowed through Latin from Greek "-izein," which turns a noun or adjective into a verb meaning "to make into" or "to treat as." To marginalize someone is therefore to treat them as if they belong in the margin, a concrete spatial picture turned into a description of social exclusion.