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• livery •

Pronunciation: liv-êr-ree • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, Adjective

Meaning: 1. The fancy uniform required of some servants, officials, or jobs. 2. The commercial insignias designed to be recognized as emblems of particular companies on their vehicles. 3. The stabling of horses for the owner, including feed and other care, for a fee. 4. (Adjective, US) Related to a car or a horse and carriage for public hire, as 'a livery cab'.

Notes: No, this word doesn't mean "liver-colored"; that is liverish. This word, unlike uniform, refers to a fancy uniform that identifies a family, company, or job. Today doormen and theater ushers wear liveries; they are said to be liveried for their wearing of liveries.

In Play: Any distinctive dress required by a profession or event can be a livery: "Yes, I went to the graduation exercises just to see R. Cain in his academic livery." A job may require a livery: "Portia Radclyffe lives in an apartment with a doorman with the fanciest livery of any doorman in the city."

Word History: Today's Good Word in Middle English was liveri, borrowed from Old French livree "delivered", the feminine past participle of livrer "to deliver". The ultimate origin of this word was Classical Latin from Latin liberare "to free", from liber "free". However, over the centuries it came to refer to the dispensing (liberation?) of food, provisions, or clothing to servants and horses, hence sense 3. Delivery shares the same origin and same historical semantic track. English borrowed quite a few words from Romance languages based on liberare: liberate, liberal, libertine, the country of Liberia, and Liberace, the wildly liberated pianist of old. Believe it or not, liber apparently comes from the same root, leudh-, as German Leute "people" and Russian lyudi "people". (We must thank William Hupy for delivering today's most liberating Good Word.)

This is a wonderful and useful word. I am surprised it does not more frequently appear in our culture, which is awash in logos, emblems, uniforms and insignia. I rarely see the word in print (or, in electrons projected onto a computer screen), but here is an example I found a few years ago:

“They [business travelers] don’t like that the commuter lines wrap themselves in the colors and livery of the major airlines. And they are convinced, rightly or wrongly, that commuter carriers simply aren’t as safe as the major airlines they mimic.” Joe Brancatelli “Commuter Hell: Turbo-prop planes, regional jets crucial, but road warriors hate flying them.” msnbc/Newsweek on line February 25, 2009 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29389465/.

When the Queen visits the Tower, the Yeomen wear a
brightly colored livery which I always enjoy seeing.

Hard to imagine two usages of the same word drifting as far apart as uniform and stable.

<<Hard to imagine two usages of the same word drifting as far apart as uniform and stable.>>

I agree as to the linguistic point. But in life, we all seek comfort in persons and things that are uniform and stable.

#groan