privilege

See also: privilège

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• priviledg (obsolete)
• priviledge (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French privilege, from Latin privilegium (“an ordinance or law against or in favor of an individual”), from privus (“private”) + lēx, legis (“law”).

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): ˈpɹɪvəlɛdʒ/, /ˈpɹɪv(ə)lədʒ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪvlɪdʒ/, /ˈpɹɪvəlɪdʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

privilege (plural privileges)

1. A peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or immunity not enjoyed by others or by all; special enjoyment of a good, or exemption from an evil or burden; a prerogative; advantage; franchise; preferential treatment.

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

2. The status or existence of such benefit or advantage.

   In order to advance racial equality in the United States, what we've got to do is reduce white privilege.

3. (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.

4. (finance) A call, put, spread, or other option.
5. (computing) An ability to perform an action on the system that can be selectively granted or denied to users; permission.

Synonyms

• prerogative, immunity, franchise, right, claim, liberty, advantage

Derived terms

• cisprivilege

Translations

A peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor

• Arabic: امتياز m (imtiyāz)
• Azeri: imtiyaz
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: privilegi m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 特權, 特权 (zh) (tèquán)

• Czech: výsada f, privilegium n
• Dutch: voorrecht (nl) n
• Esperanto: privilegio (eo)
• Finnish: etuoikeus (fi), erioikeus
• French: privilège (fr) m
• German: Privileg (de) n
• Greek: προνόμιο (el) n (pronómio)
• Hungarian: előny (hu)
• Ido: privilejo (io)

• Italian: privilegio (it) m, prerogativa (it) f
• Japanese: 特権 (ja) (とっけん, tokken)
• Khmer: សិទ្ធិ (km) (səttʰi’)
• Korean: 특권 (ko) (teukgwon) (特權 (ko))
• Polish: przywilej (pl) m
• Portuguese: privilégio (pt) m
• Romanian: privilegiu (ro) n
• Russian: привилегия (ru) f (privilégija), льгота (ru) f (lʹgóta)
• Serbo-Croatian: privilegija f, privilegij m
• Spanish: privilegio (es) m
• Swedish: privilegium (sv)
• Telugu: ప్రత్యేక హక్కు (pratyēka hakku)
• Turkish: ayrıcalık (tr), imtiyaz (tr), torpil (tr), kıyak (tr)
• Vietnamese: đặc quyền

a common law doctrine that protects certain communications from being used as evidence in court

• Finnish: salassapito-oikeus

• Romanian: privilegiu (ro) n, drept (ro) n

Verb

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; as, 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.

Translations

to grant some particular right or exemption to

• French: privilégier (fr)
• German: privilegieren

• Spanish: privilegiar

to bring or put into a condition of privilege or exemption from evil or danger

• German: privilegieren

• Spanish: privilegiar

Related terms

• allege

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Old French

Noun

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

1. privilege (benefit only given to certain people)

Descendants

• English: privilege (borrowed)
• French: privilège