Liminality
The quality of ambiguity that occurs in the middle of a rite of passage, where one no longer hold their pre-ritual status, but have not yet transitioned to the final state — a standing on the threshold.
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Origin
From the Latin līmen (threshold). Ethnographer Arnold van Gennep first described it in his 1909 work The Rites of Passage, identifying a middle stage in rituals where participants have left one social role but not yet entered another. Anthropologist Victor Turner revived and expanded the idea in the 1960s, applying it far beyond ritual to social and political transitions.
Updated February 22, 2026