Reply #53: Here is something from Wikipedia that you might find interesting [View All]

[HereSince1628]

"...liberal with the purse, or liberal tongue, usually as a term of reproach but, beginning 1776–88 imbued with a more favorable sense by Edward Gibbon and others to mean "free from prejudice, tolerant.""

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my comment begins here...

If you consider "liberal" to be the opposite from "conservative" and accept the scholarly work of Jost et al on conservatism, you would believe that liberals are not motivated by fear, do not accept explanations based on appeals of authority, do not believe that the word is divided into simple dichotomies characterized as black vs white which is to say they have a tolerance for ambiguity, and accept as answers to problems information that isn't based on authority or tradition.