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liberal

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Liberal, liberał, liberál, and libéral

English

Etymology

The adjective is from Old French liberal, from Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”); it is attested since the 14th century. The noun is first attested in the 1800s.

Pronunciation

Adjective

liberal (comparative more liberal, superlative most liberal)

  1. (now rare outside set phrases) Pertaining to those arts and sciences the study of which is considered to provide general knowledge, as opposed to vocational/occupational, technical or mechanical training.
    He had a full education studying the liberal arts.
    • 1983, David Leslie Wagner, The Seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages:
    • 1997, Gordon D. Morgan, Toward an American Sociology: Questioning the European Construct, →ISBN, page 45:
      Americans remain enamored with Europe's ability to produce the consequential thought for America. It was the same in nearly every liberal field. Education sought its roots in such Europeans as Froebel, Frobenius, and Rousseau. Political science tried to connect to Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, and Otto von Bismarck, for instance. Economics copied the thought of Adam Smith, […]
    • 2008, Donal G. Mulcahy, The Educated Person: Toward a New Paradigm for Liberal Education, →ISBN:
  2. Generous; permitting liberty; willing to give unsparingly.
    He was liberal with his compliments.
    • 1899, J. M. Baltimore, “Pacific Coast Light Service”, in Overland Monthly, volume 33:
      Indeed, the Government has been very liberal in the expenditure of public money
    • 2005, John Gardner, Assessment and Learning, →ISBN, page 50:
      When he shows improvement she is liberal with her praise and then moves on to the next set of skills to be learnt.
    • 2007, Helena Page Schrader, The English Templar, →ISBN, page 309:
      Queen Isabella was already being called Santa Isabella by many of her subjects because she was liberal with her alms.
    • 2010, Simon Guillebaud, More Than Conquerors: A Call to Radical Discipleship, →ISBN, page 142:
      Was it because the believers were so liberal with their possessions that God was so liberal with his grace?
    • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
      Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
  3. Ample, abundant; generous in quantity.
    Add a liberal sprinkling of salt.
    • 1896, Ice and refrigeration, volume 11, page 93:
      For this reason a liberal amount of piping should be used. If a liberal supply of piping is provided at first, the first cost will of course be greater, but the extra expenditure is called for but once.
    • 2009, R. Furman Kenney, Chesterville: The Village at the End of the Road, →ISBN, page 102:
      The result was usually that such helpers got a liberal sprinkling of mud over their clothing.
    • 2011, Marlene Perez, Dead Is Not an Option, →ISBN, page 37:
      Rose put a steaming cup of mint tea in front of me and spooned a liberal helping of honey into it.
  4. (obsolete) Unrestrained, licentious.
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
      Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
      Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
      Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
      Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
      Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
      A thousand times in secret.
  5. Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive.
    Her parents had liberal ideas about child-rearing.
  6. (politics) Open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical or modern liberalism.
    • 2021, Judith Rainhorn, The Colour of Controversy..., p. 10:
      Endorsing the liberal anti-interventionist credo that the marketplace should act as the "site of verification," the advocates of white lead opposed government intervention for the sake of open economic competition, which they claimed revealed its true value and thus should be the sole determinant: "When the railways were built, the stage coaches disppeared; they died a timely death. If zinc white is truly superior to white lead, it will kill us in the marketplace, but the government should not intervene." These were the words of Expert-Bezançon, in his February 1903 deposition to the parliamentary committee examining the bill for banning lead-based pigments in paint.

Usage notes

  • Differences between the classical and modern political definitions of the word "liberal" can make some phrases ambiguous. For example, if one says a certain region has "liberal gun laws," this can be interpreted with two opposite meanings.
  • Recently, “liberal” as it was used previously has split into two terms “liberal” and “leftist”, where “leftist” refers to one with left-wing views spanning all political issues, whereas “liberal” refers to one with left-wing views on social and environmental issues but centrist or even conservative views on matters concerning economics and political reform.

Antonyms

  • (antonym(s) of “generous; permitting liberty”): authoritarian
  • (antonym(s) of “widely open to new ideas”): conservative

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Korean: 리버럴하다 (ribeoreolhada)

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

liberal (plural liberals)

  1. One with liberal views, supporting individual liberty (see Wikipedia's article on Liberalism).
  2. (US politics, Canadian politics, Philippine politics) Someone with progressive or left-wing views, especially on social and environmental issues.
    • 1966, Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I'm a Liberal”‎:
      And I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
      As long as they don't move next door.
      So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal.
  3. (politics) A supporter of any of several liberal parties.
  4. (UK politics) One who favors individual voting rights, human and civil rights, and laissez-faire markets (also called "classical liberal"; compare libertarian).
  5. (Australian politics) A conservative, especially a liberal conservative.

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

References

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