libertarian
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌlɪb.əˈtɛə.ɹɪ.ən/
ipa: /-ɹj-/
ipa: /ˌlɪb.əɹˈtɛ.ɹi.ən/
ipa: /ˌlɪb.ɪˈteː.ɹɪ.ən/
ipa: /-ɹj-/
Forms: form: more libertarian
form: most libertarian
form: Libertarian
Etymology: The noun is derived from liber(ty) + -arian (suffix denoting an advocate of or believer in something). The adjective is derived from the noun.
sense development
The word was first attested in English in 1789 in William Belsham’s Essays: see the quotation. This was contrasted with necessitarian, in the context of free will, and was not used in the more frequently encountered modern sense.
Compare French libertaire (“person with extreme left-wing beliefs, anarchist”), from liberté (“freedom”) + -aire (suffix forming nouns). Libertaire is derived from Latin libertas. The French word was first attested in a May 1857 letter by the French anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque (1821–1865) to the anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), reading: “Anarchiste juste-milieu, libéral et non LIBERTAIRE [A centrist anarchist, liberal and not LIBERTARIAN] […]”. It was popularized as a euphemism for anarchiste in the 1890s, following the French lois scélérates (literally “villainous laws”) under which anarchist publications were banned.
Sense 3.2 (“believer in right-libertarianism”) developed in the United States in the 1940s and was popularized in the 1950s. In the 1940s, Leonard Read (1898–1983), the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, a free-market think tank, began calling himself “libertarian” in contrast with a “classical liberal”. In 1955, Dean Russell also promoted the use of the word, writing: “Let those of us who love liberty trade-mark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word ‘libertarian’.”
Senses: examples: text: He has libertarian views.
text: Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that "nudges" our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they were in control.
ref: 2012 January, Steven Sloman, “The Battle Between Intuition and Deliberation [review of Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) by Daniel Kahneman]”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Jun 2017, page 74:
antonyms: antilibertarian
nonlibertarian
glosses: Advocating liberty; also, having a relative tendency towards liberty.
topics: human-sciences
philosophy
sciences
antonyms: necessitarian
glosses: Relating to the doctrine of free will as opposed to the doctrine of necessity.
examples: text: a libertarian capitalist
text: For a long time, libertarian was interchangeable in France with anarchist but in recent years, its meaning has become more ambivalent. Some anarchists like David Guérin will call themselves ‘libertarian socialists’, partly to avoid the negative overtones still associated with anarchism, and partly to stress the place of anarchism with the socialist tradition. Even Marxists of the New Left like E[dward] P[almer] Thompson call themselves ‘libertarian’ to distinguish themselves from those authoritarian socialists and communists who believe in revolutionary dictatorship and vanguard parties.
ref: 1991, Peter H[ugh] Marshall, “The Relevance of Anarchism”, in Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, London: Harper Perennial, published 2008, →ISBN, part 7 (The Legacy of Anarchism), page 641:
text: Rand Paul's presidential campaign has drafted in his father, libertarian icon Ron Paul, to directly attack Republican rival Ted Cruz in a robocall in Iowa, the first time the former presidential candidate has gone on the offensive on his son’s behalf.
ref: 2016 January 13, Ben Jacobs, “Ron Paul criticizes Cruz's absence from Fed vote in support of son's campaign”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2023:
text: Anonymous activities have over the years leaned incoherently to the libertarian left and right, and everything in between, singling out everyone from Justin Bieber fans to feminists, fascists, cybersecurity specialists, and engaged in the kind of pervert-exposing vigilantism that blue-collar tabloid readers have long been mocked for.
ref: 2017, Angela Nagle, “The Leaderless Digital Counter-revolution”, in Kill All Normies: The Online Culture Wars from Tumblr and 4chan to the Alt-right and Trump, Alresford, Hampshire: Zero Books, John Hunt Publishing, →ISBN, page 13:
text: It was a one-stop political and policy shop, a sort of shadow Republican Party but crafted in the libertarian molds of the Kochs and entirely controlled by them.
That wasn’t the only thing that the Koch brothers did differently.
ref: 2019 August 23, Chris Cillizza, “How the Koch brothers fundamentally changed modern politics”, in CNN:
topics: government
politics
antonyms: antilibertarian
nonlibertarian
glosses: Relating to, or advocating, libertarianism; also, relating to a political party supporting libertarianism.
qualifier: crosswording
glosses: Araucarian.
Derived terms: antilibertarian
illibertarian
liberaltarian
libertarian communism
libertarian communist
libertarian Marxism
libertarian Marxist
libertarian parties
libertarian party
libertarian socialism
libertarian socialist
loonytarian
nonlibertarian
paleolibertarian
unlibertarian