Marginalizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. It entails the systematic exclusion of specific communities from mainstream social, political, or economic activities, thereby diminishing their societal relevance and visibility
2. This action involves the deliberate positioning of particular groups outside the central discourse of society, thus impairing their opportunities and recognition within various realms
3. The act of pushing certain groups or individuals to the edges of social, political, or economic life, reducing their influence and engagement

Etymology: Marginalizing comes from "marginalize", which English formed by adding the suffix "-ize" to "marginal". The suffix has a long route: it descends from a Greek verb ending "-izein", which Latin borrowed as "-izare" and which passed through Old French into Middle English as "-isen". Its job was to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat in a certain way". The base word "marginal" is older and more concrete. It comes from Latin "margo", meaning "edge" or "border", so a marginal thing was once literally something at the edge of a page or a field. Verbs built on it therefore carry the picture of pushing something toward the boundary. The sense of the word as used today, excluding groups from social, political, or economic life, is a later extension of that spatial image. The verb was formed in English from this base and suffix, and its modern meaning developed from the edge-of-the-page idea.

Synonyms: marginalising, alienating, sideling, isolating

Antonyms: including, integrating, embracing