libertarian
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: government
human-sciences
philosophy
politics
sciences
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’.”
Base: liberty
Affixes: -arian
Inflected forms:
form: libertarians
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: Libertarian
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: more libertarian
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most libertarian
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: Libertarian
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: One who advocates liberty, either generally or in relation to a specific issue.
pos: noun
examples: civil libertarian
cultural libertarian
gloss: A believer in the freedom of thinking beings to choose their own destiny (the doctrine of free will) as opposed to those who believe the future is predetermined (the doctrine of necessity).
pos: noun
examples: [W]here is the difference betvveen the Libertarian, vvho ſays that the mind chuſes the motive; and the Neceſſarian, vvho aſſerts that the motive determines the mind; if the volition be the neceſſary reſult of all the previous circumſtances?
gloss: One who advocates libertarianism (“a political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others that same liberty”); also, a member of a political party supporting libertarianism.
pos: noun
tags: Ireland
UK
examples: [Gustav] Landauer's reorientation of anarchist theory and practice in the direction of idealist and völkisch thought was often incomprehensible to the more traditional libertarians, and in the period of the second Sozialist Landauer no longer felt entirely comfortable with the simple "anarchist" label. For Landauer anarchism and socialism had always been different expressions of the same view; now he regarded anarchism as "merely the negative side of what is positively called socialism."
While anarchism and socialist libertarians have a rich history of revolutionary thinkers ranging from Emma Goldman to George Orwell, the best-known socialist libertarian thinker of today is probably Noam Chomsky.
gloss: One who advocates libertarianism (“a political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others that same liberty”); also, a member of a political party supporting libertarianism.
pos: noun
tags: US
gloss: An Araucarian.
pos: noun
gloss: Advocating liberty; also, having a relative tendency towards liberty.
pos: adj
examples: He has libertarian views.
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.
gloss: Relating to the doctrine of free will as opposed to the doctrine of necessity.
pos: adj
gloss: Relating to, or advocating, libertarianism; also, relating to a political party supporting libertarianism.
pos: adj
examples: a libertarian capitalist
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.
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.
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.
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.
gloss: Araucarian.
pos: adj
Derived words: anarcho-libertarian
civil libertarian
conservatarian
cyberlibertarian
geolibertarian
glibertarian
left-libertarian
libertard
libertardian
libertarianish
libertarianism
libertarianize
libertoon
libertopia
libertopian
libertopic
libertopist
libtard
lolbertarian
right-libertarian
small l libertarian
small-l libertarian
small libertarian
antilibertarian
liberaltarian
loonytarian
nonlibertarian
illibertarian
libertarian communism
libertarian communist
libertarian Marxism
libertarian Marxist
libertarian parties
libertarian party
libertarian socialism
libertarian socialist
paleolibertarian
unlibertarian
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: libertaari
lang: Russian
word: либертариа́нец
roman: libertariánec
lang: Swedish
word: frihetlig
lang: Swedish
word: libertarian
lang: Swedish
word: frihetlig socialist