c.1375, from O.Fr.
liberal "befitting free men, noble, generous," from L.
liberalis "noble, generous," lit. "pertaining to a free man," from
liber "free," from PIE base
*leudheros (cf. Gk.
eleutheros "free"), probably originally "belonging to the people" (though the precise semantic development is obscure), from
*leudho- "people" (cf. O.C.S.
ljudu, Lith.
liaudis, O.E.
leod, Ger.
Leute "nation, people"). Earliest reference in Eng. is to the
liberal arts (L.
artes liberales; see
art (n.)), the seven attainments directed to intellectual enlargement, not immediate practical purpose, and thus deemed worthy of a free man (the word in this sense was opposed to
servile or
mechanical). Sense of "free in bestowing" is from 1387. With a meaning "free from restraint in speech or action" (1490)
liberal was used 16c.-17c. as a term of reproach. It revived in a positive sense in the Enlightenment, with a meaning "free from prejudice, tolerant," which emerged 1776-88. Purely in ref. to political opinion, "tending in favor of freedom and democracy" it dates from c.1801, from Fr.
libéral, originally applied in Eng. by its opponents (often in Fr. form and with suggestions of foreign lawlessness) to the party favorable to individual political freedoms. But also (especially in U.S. politics) tending to mean "favorable to government action to effect social change," which seems at times to draw more from the religious sense of "free from prejudice in favor of traditional opinions and established institutions" (and thus open to new ideas and plans of reform), which dates from 1823.
"Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others." [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]
The noun meaning "member of the Liberal party of Great Britain" is from 1820.
Liberalism is first attested 1819.
[lib-er-uh
l, lib-ruh