privilege

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privilege

Wikipedia

• priviledg, priviledge (obsolete)

From Middle English privilege, from Anglo-Norman privilege and Old French privilege, from Latin prīvilēgium (“ordinance or law against or in favor of an individual”), from prīvus (“private”) + lēx, lēg- (“law”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪv(ɪ)lɪd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: priv‧i‧lege, privi‧lege

privilege (countable and uncountable, plural privileges)

1. (ecclesiastical law, now chiefly historical) An exemption from certain laws granted by the Pope. [from 8th c.]
2. (countable) A particular benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or immunity enjoyed by some but not others; a prerogative, preferential treatment. [from 10th c.]

   Synonyms: franchise, immunity, prerogative, right, (Scotland, Northern England) freelage

   All first-year professors here must teach four courses a term, yet you're only teaching one! What entitled you to such a privilege?

   • 2001, Paul H. Kratoska, South East Asia, Colonial History, page 323:

     Special privileges should be reserved for family and village life, while steps should be taken to prevent families and family ownings from being broken up by inheritance.

3. An especially rare or fortunate opportunity; the good fortune (to do something). [from 14th c.]
   • 2012, The Observer, letter, 29 April:

     I had the privilege to sit near him in the House for a small part of his Commons service and there was an additional device provided to aid his participation in debates.

4. (uncountable) The fact of being privileged; the status or existence of (now especially social or economic) benefit or advantage within a given society. [from 14th c.]

   Synonyms: advantage, foredeal

   • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. III:

     People who at any other time would cling like glue to their miserable scraps of privilege, will surrender them fast enough when their country is in danger.

   • 2013 October 21, Azad Essa, “South Africa's 'miracle transition' has not put an end to white privilege”, in The Guardian‎^[1], Guardian Media Group:

     There is no complexity expressed in the feverish discussions of white privilege that periodically grips South Africa's chattering class.

   • 2013, The Guardian, 21 Oct, (headline):

     South Africa's 'miracle transition' has not put an end to white privilege.

5. A right or immunity enjoyed by a legislative body or its members. [from 16th c.]

   Synonym: immunity

   • 2001, The Guardian, leader, 1 May:

     Dr Grigori Loutchansky is – according to a congressman speaking under congressional privilege – a "purported Russian mob figure".

6. (countable, US, finance, now rare) A stock market option. [from 19th c.]
7. (law) A common law doctrine that protects certain communications from being used as evidence in court.

   Your honor, my client is not required to answer that; her response is protected by attorney-client privilege.

8. (computing) An ability to perform an action on the system that can be selectively granted or denied to users.

   Synonym: permission

• claim, liberty

privilege (third-person singular simple present privileges, present participle privileging, simple past and past participle privileged)

1. (archaic, transitive) To grant some particular right or exemption to; to invest with a peculiar right or immunity; to authorize

   to privilege representatives from arrest

2. (archaic) To bring or put into a condition of privilege or exemption from evil or danger; to exempt; to deliver.
3. (transitive) To prioritize.
   • 2022 July 20, Jon Caramanica, “R&B That Sweats, Emotionally and Physically”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     “Rolling Stone” is spacious and ethereal but not directionless — it is R&B that privileges mood over structure, soft daubs of feeling over authoritative belting.

• allege

• “privilege”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• privilege in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• “privilege”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

From Middle Dutch privilegie, from Old French privilege, from Latin privilegium.

• IPA^(key): /ˌpri.viˈleː.ʒə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pri‧vi‧le‧ge

privilege n (plural privileges)

1. privilege, prerogative (particular right or favour)

   Synonym: voorrecht

privilege oblique singular, m (oblique plural privileges, nominative singular privileges, nominative plural privilege)

1. privilege (benefit only given to certain people)

• → English: privilege
• Middle French: privilege
  • French: privilège

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (privilege, supplement)