Thread: "Marginal"

Hi!

How would you translate the word "Marginal" in this conversation between Mr. Trump and a girl? Could it be just "marginal"?

“Hello, is this Collman? Merry Christmas. How are you? How old are you?” Trump asked the girl. Reporters could not hear the child’s responses. “Are you still a believer in Santa? ’Cause at 7, it’s marginal, right?”
— Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post, 26 Dec. 2018

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...ding-upperleft

Originally Posted by MirB-Translator

“Are you still a believer in Santa? ’Cause at 7, it’s marginal, right?”

Originally Posted by eidjit

marginal /ˈmɑːdʒɪn(ə)l/ - adjetive
"minor and not important; not central."

Hi All!

Though it is one of its possible meanings, I don't think that's correct in this case.

Marginal comes from margin, that is, the border of something. And it is usually used to describe that something is close to a limit, or barely within the limits of something.

So here, what is marginal is the possibility of a child still believing in Santa at age 7.
By that age, children already know how things work (in most cases), so the chances of believing in Santa are slim --or marginal

Well, my son's 9 years old and he's still a believer... Or a cheater, haha

So I think the meaning intended by Trump was "close to the lower limit of qualification, acceptability, or function". I don't think it is the same meaning of "marginal" in Spanish: http://dle.rae.es/?id=OOhGuFX

Originally Posted by eidjit

Good bait!

I was lured here thinking you were going to bring up the NETFLIX series "el Marginal"

I don't know if he said that word knowing, fully, what it means.

And so do I for that matter.

marginal /ˈmɑːdʒɪn(ə)l/ - adjetive
"minor and not important; not central."

hahahaha No, it's not about "el Marginal". Sorry!
I agree with you, I don't think he knows the real meaning of the word