Etymologically
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illiberalis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪl.liː.bɛˈraː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [il.li.beˈraː.lis][1]

Forms

illīberālis (neuter illīberāle); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] It is also spelled inlīberālis.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + līberālis (“of a free man, generous”).[2][1][4] De Vaan lists līberālis among the derivatives of līber1 (“free”) (from Naevius on), which goes back to Proto-Italic *leuþ-ero- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁leudʰ-ero-.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Terence's Adelphoe, where a character is shocked that so ignoble a deed (tam illīberāle facinus) should come from such a family.[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

It describes what is unworthy of a free man:[2][3] the Rhetorica ad Herennium calls a kind of talk frivolous and illiberal,[4] and Cicero, in De officiis, counts as illiberal and sordid the earnings of hired labourers, whose labour, not their skill, is bought.[3][4] He also contrasts an illiberal, petulant kind of joking with an elegant one.[4] Pliny the Elder calls the radish a vulgar food.[4] Terence also uses it of a person lacking the qualities of a free man, and Gellius describes a girl whose face was not unrefined (haud illīberālī).[2][4]

A narrower sense is ungenerous or mean: Cicero writes that someone will think, not that his correspondent was mean towards him, but that he himself was careless,[2] and Livy speaks of an illiberal and ungrateful mind.[4]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of an ignoble deed and of a slave who shows himself not unworthy of a free man.[2][4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of sordid trades and of a mean attitude.[2][3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy writes of an illiberal and ungrateful mind.[4][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder calls the radish a vulgar food.[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Unworthy of a free man, ignoble, ill-bred, vulgar.[2][3]
  2. Lacking the qualities of a free man.[2]
  3. Ungenerous, niggardly, mean.[2][3][1]

Word family

  • illīberālitās

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de