different between liminality vs liminal

English

Etymology

liminal +? -ity

Noun

liminality (countable and uncountable, plural liminalities)

1. (anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology) The state or quality of ambiguity which exists in the middle stage of certain events or rituals (such as a rite of passage or a society-wide revolution), during which the participating individual or group no longer holds its pre-ritual status but has not yet attained the status it will hold when the ritual has been completed.

English

Etymology

From Latin l?min?lis, from l?men (“doorstep, threshold; doorway, entrance; beginning, commencement”) + -?lis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). L?men is possibly derived from l?mus (“askew; sideways”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Heh?l- (“to bend, bow; elbow”)) + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension) (from Proto-Indo-European *-mn? (suffix forming action nouns or result nouns from verbs)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?m?n(?)l/
• Hyphenation: li?min?al

Adjective

liminal (comparative more liminal, superlative most liminal)

1. Of or pertaining to an entrance or threshold. [from late 19th c.]

   Synonym: thresholdlike
2. Of or pertaining to a beginning or first stage of a process. [from late 19th c.]

   Synonyms: inceptive, inchoative, marginal

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• liminal (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• liminal in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Millian