Other forms: liberties
Liberty is freedom from control by others. Civil liberty, at liberty, take the liberty of.
It is the political word where freedom is the general one, which is why civil liberties, liberty of conscience and deprivation of liberty are all fixed legal phrases. At liberty means not imprisoned. Take the liberty of is a polite formula for doing something without asking. Note that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1886.
1nounlibertyFreedom from control by others.
“The prisoners dreamed of liberty every day.”
2nounpresumptionA presumption, in the phrase take the liberty.
“I took the liberty of booking a table for us at eight.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
liberty is a freedom.
Latin libertas comes from liber, free. Liberal, liberate and deliver come from the same freedom.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁lewdʰ-
Latin
libertas — freedom
Old French
liberté
Middle English
liberte
English, today
liberty
Built from
From Middle English liberte, from Old French liberté, from Latin libertas (“freedom”), from liber (“free”); see liberal.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA