Liberalism
Etymology
From Latin liber, “free,” the same root as “liberty.” The adjective “liberal” long meant “generous” or “befitting a free person” before it acquired a political charge. Early-nineteenth-century Spain gave Europe the noun Liberales for a party favoring constitutional government, and from there liberalism spread as the name for a broad tradition — one that later split into free-market and social-reform branches that still dispute the label.
noun · /LIB-ur-uh-liz-um/
A political tradition that centers individual liberty, legal equality, consent of the governed, and limits on concentrated power.
What it names
The shared grammar behind most modern debates about rights, markets, and the proper reach of the state — a baseline that both its heirs and its critics argue over.
Example
She argued that classical liberalism and its more egalitarian cousins agree on individual rights while disagreeing sharply about how much the state should redistribute.
Related idea
Libertarianism pushes the emphasis on individual freedom to its economic and governmental limit; liberalism, broadly, leaves more room for the state to correct market outcomes.