Etymologically
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liberal

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈlɪb.ər.əl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English liberal,[2] borrowed from Old French liberal (“befitting free people; noble, generous”) and directly from Latin līberālis (“of freedom, befitting a free person; noble, generous”),[3][4] from līber (“free”),[3][4] which is conjectured to come from Proto-Indo-European *leudh- (“people”), probably originally “belonging to the people”.[3][4] It is cognate with Greek eleútheros “free” and German Leute “people”.[4][5] It is related to liberty, liberate and deliver.[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As the epithet of the arts “worthy of a free man”, about 1375 in the OED;[6] “generous”, and also “nobly born, free”, the mid-14th century in Etymonline[3] and before 1350 in Barnhart.[4]

Semantic evolution

Its original sense, suitable for a free man or gentleman not tied to a trade, survives in liberal arts, the seven arts of the trivium and quadrivium.[7][4] It meant “selfless, magnanimous” from the late 14th century,[3] and in the early 15th century it could also mean “extravagant, unrestrained”.[3] In the 16th and 17th centuries it was a term of reproach, “free from restraint in speech or action”,[3][6] as when Shakespeare calls Iago “a most profane and liberal counsellor”.[8] The Enlightenment revived it in the positive sense “free from prejudice, tolerant” (1776–88).[3] In the 19th century it was often theological, opposed to orthodox.[3] In politics it is from the 19th century,[5] and the noun, a member of the British Liberal party, is from 1820,[3][9] and of anyone of liberal principles by 1832.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1375 – of the liberal arts.[6]
  • 1387 – generous.[6]
  • early 15th century – unrestrained.[3]
  • 1776–88 – free from prejudice.[3]
  • 1820 – a member of the Liberal party.[3]
  • 1832 – a person of liberal principles.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Not bound by traditional or authoritarian views; tolerant and open to new ideas.
  2. Favouring political reform, individual liberty and civil rights.
  3. Generous in giving; ample: a liberal helping.
  4. Not strict or literal: a liberal interpretation.
  5. Of education, concerned with general knowledge rather than vocational training: the liberal arts.

Noun

  1. A person with liberal views.
  2. Liberal, a member of a Liberal political party.

Word family

  • liberally
  • liberalness
  • neoliberal
  • pseudoliberal
  • archliberal
  • liberality
  • liberalize
  • nonliberal
  • liberalism
  • liberate
  • liberation
  • libertarian
  • liberty
  • deliver
  • libertine
  • livery

Usage notes

The American Heritage sets liberal, “giving unstintingly”, beside bounteous, bountiful, generous, handsome and munificent.[10] Ambrose Bierce defined a conservative as “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others”.[3]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin