liberality

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English liberalite, also liberalte,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French liberalité (“generosity, magnanimity”)^[4][5][2][6] and directly borrowed from Latin līberālitās (“generosity, nobility, munificence; a gift”).^[4][2][6][7] The Latin noun is formed from līberālis and the suffix -tās,^[4] the adjective that gave English liberal,^[5][8] which comes from līber (“free”).^[9] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the Latin family to Proto-Indo-European *leudh-.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of giving or spending freely, generosity: about 1390, in St Ambrose, a text perhaps composed about 1350.^[4] Etymonline likewise dates the word to the mid-14th century,^[5] and the Middle English Dictionary quotes it from Trevisa's translation of Higden, composed before 1387.^[2] Anglo-Norman records the same sense from about 1360–79.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Latin līberālitās was literally the way of thinking or acting that befitted a free man, and so frankness and affability;^[5][3] it also meant generosity and a generous gift.^[4] Middle English took over the sense of open-handed giving, and medieval writers treated it as a virtue, the mean between prodigality and stinginess.^[2] From 1526, in Tyndale's Bible, it could also mean a single act of generosity or a gift,^[4] a use the Shorter Oxford now calls rare.^[8] Johnson (1755) gave only "munificence; bounty; generosity; generous profusion".^[11] The sense "breadth of mind" came later: the OED's first example is from a letter of R. Price in 1783,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford dates this sense to the early 19th century.^[8] A sense "political liberalism; liberals collectively" was used from 1822 to 1874, perhaps after French libéralité, recorded in that sense in 1799.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – generosity, open-handed giving, in a text copied about 1390.^[4] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century.^[5]
• 1526 – an instance of generosity; a gift, in Tyndale's Bible.^[4]
• 1783 – open-mindedness, freedom from prejudice.^[4][12]
• 1822 – political liberalism; liberals collectively (obsolete after 1874).^[4][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of giving or spending freely; generosity or munificence: The town still remembers her liberality to its hospital.^{[13][14][4][9]}
2. A generous act or gift: He was nearly ruined by his many liberalities.^[14][4][8]
3. Breadth of mind; freedom from prejudice: The college was known for the liberality of its views.^[4][8][14]
4. The state of being liberal in general.^[13][9]

Related words

• liberal
• liberalism
• liberty

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster