Etymology

submarginal

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Today it means: Less than, or worse than, marginal. Not meeting even the minimum standard of quality. Full definition →

English marginal ← Latin sub- ← Proto-Italic *supo
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*upó
  2. Proto-Italic*supo
  3. Latinsub
  4. Latinsub-
  5. Englishsub-
  6. Englishmarginal
  7. English todaysubmarginal

From sub- + marginal.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.