boundary term

Noun

boundary term (plural boundary terms)

1. A word or phrase that is used for othering; a term that serves to identify someone or something as other than the speaker.
   • 'Sustainability' is a boundary term, signifying complex interactions between science, politics, policy making and development (Scoones, 2010: 153-4).2013, Frances Fahy, Henrike Rau, Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences, →ISBN, page 91
   • 'Poor white trash' is likely the most enduring and degrading in a long line of 'stigmatypes'– 'stigmatizing boundary terms that simultaneously denote and enact cultural and cognitive divides between ingroups and outgroups' –such as 'redneck,' 'cracker,' and 'hillbilly.'2014, Michael Raiber, David Teachout, The Journey from Music Student to Teacher: A Professional Approach, →ISBN
2. A term that must be added to an equation to represent a boundary condition.
   • If M is truncated to have toral boundary, there will be a boundary term after the integration by parts step.1996, Kojima Sadayoshi, Saito Kyoji, Matsumoto Y, Topology And Teichmuller Spaces, →ISBN
   • Thus the boundary term ambiguity is under physical control: Each distinct choice of the quasi-local expression given by the Hamiltonian boundary term is associated with a physically distinct boundary condition.2017, Ni Wei-tou, One Hundred Years Of General Relativity, →ISBN