liquidity

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin liquiditās,^[2][3][4] which Etymonline calls Late Latin,^[5] perhaps also through French liquidité;^[3][4][6] the Shorter Oxford allows that it may have been formed directly from the English adjective liquid.^[6] The Latin noun comes from liquidus (“fluid, liquid”),^[2][5][3] from liqueō (“to be fluid”), which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *wleykʷ- (“to flow, run”).^[5] Before it, liquidness was used for the literal sense, from the 1520s.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality or condition of being liquid: 1620, in T. Venner's Via Recta.^[2][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In 1661 Glanvill used it for a rarefied, subtle state of the spirits,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it accordingly as "subtilty", quoting him.^[7] Keats (1817) applied it to sound, for clearness or purity of tone, after the use of liquid for flowing sounds.^[2][6] The financial sense, the ease with which assets can be turned into money, came from the financial use of liquid and is dated 1897 by Etymonline^[5] and 1923, in Hawtrey's Currency and Credit, by the OED.^[2] Collins lists first the sense of holding enough liquid assets to pay current debts.^[8]

Timeline

• 1520s – liquidness, in the literal sense.^[5]
• 1620 – the quality of being liquid.^[2]
• 1661 – a rarefied, subtle condition (obsolete).^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson: subtlety.^[7]
• 1817 – clearness or purity of tone (Keats).^[2]
• 1897 – the quality of being financially liquid.^[5]
• 1923 – in economics, the interchangeability of assets and money.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (finance) The ability of a business, bank or person to meet debts from assets that can easily be turned into cash; the possession of such assets: The bank raised its liquidity before the downturn.^[8][3][2]
2. (finance) The ease with which an asset can be bought or sold for money.^[2][6]
3. The quality or state of being liquid.^[8][3][2]
4. Clearness or purity of a sound.^[2][6]
5. (obsolete, 1661) A rarefied state; subtlety.^[2][7]

Related words

• liquid
• liquidate
• liquidation
• liquidator
• liquor
• liquefy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins