Memes

That was "libertarian" or "libertaire". "Liberal" was already a bourgeois ideology at the time of the 1789 French revolution. It was a more egalitarian idea than the pre-existing status quo, since it involved abolishing feudalism and noble privileges, but it also came with a defense to the right of property and free market. I think the difference between the USian use of the word and the use in most if the rest of the world is that Americans kept the quotation of novelty and progressism that were attached to the word at the time of it's independence, rather than the specific type of economic policies it was associated to.