MARGINALIZE

transitive verb Also written marginalise (Politics) (People and Society) To treat (a person or group of people) as marginal and therefore unimportant; to push from the centre or mainstream towards the periphery of one's interests, of society, etc. Also as an adjective marginalized; adjective and noun marginalizing; process noun marginalization. Etymology: Formed by adding the verbal suffix -ize to marginal; the verb was originally formed in the nineteenth century in the sense 'to make marginal notes (on)'. History and Usage: Marginalization was originally a sociologists' term, in use from about the early 1970s. It was during the mid to late seventies that a number of interest groups and liberation movements (including feminism, Black power, and gay rights groups) took up the term to focus public attention on their causes, eventually turning it into one of the main social buzzwords of the eighties. Society, taking its lead from the media and its politicians, begins to reject a whole class and marginalizes them in the job market. Caryl Phillips The European Tribe (1987), p. 123 One of the many tales that we have been told is that there was once a homogenous national culture which is now under threat from multiculturalism, as if there was, is, or is ever likely to be, one tradition within England--not to mention the traditions within each of the marginalised nations in the United Kingdom. New Statesman 17 June 1988, p. 46 Although the curve of decline has been flattening gradually, it is not yet clear that the church's long years of marginalisation in our national life have been ended. Independent 29 July 1990, p. 20