privilege

• 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?

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, 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) 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.

• 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

• handelsprivilege

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)