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What is "liberal arts"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
liberal arts
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a liberal arts college
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Although many employers prefer candidates to have a degree in business or engineering, some companies hire liberal arts graduates.
▪ By organizing computer training for liberal arts students generally, significant economies of scale can be achieved.
▪ Could City serve as an antipoverty program or a fine liberal arts college, but not both?
▪ In the public sector, many managers have liberal arts degrees in public administration or one of the social sciences.
▪ Others are not employed directly by the ruling class and work in the liberal arts and service professions.
▪ Science and technology institutes tended to receive more investment than the liberal arts colleges.
▪ The first is to promote liberal arts higher education, both at general degree and sub-degree levels.
▪ There probably never has been a year that employers have knocked down the doors to hire liberal arts graduates.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
liberal arts

late 14c., translating Latin artes liberales; the seven attainments directed to intellectual enlargement, not immediate practical purpose, and thus deemed worthy of a free man ( liberal in this sense is opposed to servile or mechanical). They were divided into the trivium -- grammar, logic, rhetoric (see trivial) -- and the quadrivium -- arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy.

Wiktionary
liberal arts

n. 1 those areas of learning that require and cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical skills; the humanities 2 (context obsolete English) the trivium and the quadrivium

WordNet
liberal arts

n. studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills); "the college of arts and sciences" [syn: humanistic discipline, humanities, arts]

Wikipedia
Liberal Arts (film)

Liberal Arts is an American comedy-drama film. The second film directed by, written by, and starring Josh Radnor, it tells the story of 35-year-old Jesse (Radnor) who has a romantic relationship with Zibby ( Elizabeth Olsen), a 19-year-old college student. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in January 2012.

Usage examples of "liberal arts".

Any liberal arts college with high scholastic standards is okay for lower division.

Peppering his schedules with electives in art, music, current events, comparative literature, and even drama, he gradually acquired a true old-fashioned liberal arts education.

Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberal arts: but every other branch of commercial industry was affected by the severity of the law.

And the other guard cleared our way past long tables over which hung signs -- LIBERAL ARTS.

To you, they aren't able to be fully functional without the liberal arts courses.

Since I could not go to Columbia, I wanted to go to Butler Academy, a two-gear private school that offered a liberal arts course acceptable at Columbia or at Lawrence in lieu of lower division.

In her studies she found the challenge and rigor of the sciences stimulating, but kept liberal arts and the humanities to a minimum.

Babbitt wants his son to take more traditional liberal arts courses--not because he thinks education has any real value in itself, but because it's a status symbol necessary to business success in Zenith.