Where does “liberal” come from?
Liberal comes from Old French liberal, from Latin liberalis, an adjective formed with the suffix -alis from a root meaning "free" that traces back through Proto-Indo-European h₁lewdʰ-.
liberal (English): Pertaining to those arts and sciences the study...
Definitions
- Pertaining to those arts and sciences the study...
Ancestry of “liberal”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | liberal | appropriate for a free person; generous; giving |
| 2 | Latin | līberālis | freedom |
| 3 | Latin | Līber | — |
| 4 | Old Latin | loeber | — |
| 5 | French | lober | to lob |
| 6 | French | lob | lob |
| 7 | English | lob | To throw or hit a ball into the air in a high... |
| 8 | English | long | Having much distance from one terminating point... |
| 9 | English | longitude | Angular distance measured west or east of the... |
| 10 | Old French | longitude | — |
| 11 | Latin | longitūdō | length, longitude; longness |
| 12 | Latin | longus | far, long; extended, prolonged; long; tedious,... |
| 13 | Latin | -ē | ly; used to form adverbs from adjectives |
| 14 | Latin | dis- | asunder, apart, in two; reversal, removal;... |
| 15 | Latin | calceus | shoe |
| 16 | Latin | calx | limestone; chalk; the finish line |
| 17 | Ancient Greek | χάλιξ | small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble |