Learn English – Single word for being half in this world, half in some other spooky plane of existence

single-word-requests

I'm looking for a word meaning being part of our mortal real world, and part of the fey/spirit world.

The moors are haunted by Sigwiff, an ancient witch cursed to the form of a wolf. Part ghostly apparition, and part shadowy manifestation, a _____ existence, trapped between this world and the other.

Similar to “crepuscular” in spookiness factor, and similar in that crepuscular can denote creatures that exist between the two worlds of daylight and night. Ideally not a mundane word, and probably a word of some heritage, but possibly fallen out of modern use. A little bit wanky.

I have explored synonym chains adjacent to ethereal, twilight, otherworldly, fey, metaphysical, unearthly .. to no avail.

Best Answer

liminal is the exact word for this context.

  1. Adjective: of, relating to, or situated at a sensory threshold : barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response

  2. Adjective: of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition : IN-BETWEEN, TRANSITIONAL

ORIGIN OF LIMINAL 1880–85; < Latin līmin- (stem of līmen) threshold + -al

Example of use from 2: And the restaurant seems to inhabit a liminal zone between full service and casual, clearly refined in the past two years to serve both new and longtime neighbors. — Jen Thomas, SFChronicle.com, "Bay Briefing: What we know about the Gilroy shooting so far," 29 July 2019

Apart from bearing the right meaning, the more subtle reasons I like liminal for this context are that it speaks somewhat of erudition, and that it has a strong connection with the psychological.

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