marginalize
verb
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Marginalized Writing vs. Marginalized People
Marginalize provides a striking case of how thoroughly the figurative use of a word can take over the literal one. The original (and now obsolete) meaning of this word, “to write notes in the margin of,” is analogous to the still-familiar noun marginalia, “marginal notes or embellishments." A margin is, of course, the blank space surrounding the text in a book. Just prior to 1970, marginalize took on the sense that is most commonly encountered today, “to relegate to an unimportant or powerless position” (that is, to the metaphorical margins of society). This use of the verb can be found as far back as 1968; an article in The Los Angeles Times from June 20th of that year reports, “[T]he Negro was kept aside, marginalized, thus composing in its large majority the chronically poor.” In its newer sense, marginalize has assumed a much more prominent place in the vocabulary than it once had.
Examples of marginalize in a Sentence
Ime Ekpo, Forbes.com, 26 June 2025
Arbus also captured the lives of society’s most celebrated, too, but in this exhibition photographs of figures like Mae West, Susan Sontag and James Brown are interspersed with the obscure, the marginalized, the extraordinary and the ordinary.
—Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 June 2025
With Mayor Eric Adams under federal investigation and politically weakened, several Democrats now believe that a Cuomo victory in November would give him the leverage to marginalize James further.
—Jesus Mesa, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 June 2025
Japan and South Korea are the two anchors of Asian economic dynamism; without them, American efforts to marginalize China cannot succeed.
—Kori Schake, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for marginalize
Cite this Entry
“Marginalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marginalize. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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marginalize
verb
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