liberality

What it means

1. uncountableusuallyThe property of being liberal; generosity; charity.

   That liberality is but cast away / Which makes us borrow what we cannot pay.

   1668, John Denham, Of Justice (poem)

   2 more examples

   '[…] Mrs. Ferrars, with the utmost liberality, will come forward, and settle on him a thousand a-year, if the match takes place. […]'

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

   She preferred that Lord Rotheles's liberality should take a purely personal direction. Whatever decorations might be lavished upon her dressing-room, the dowager would have to leave them behind her; not so those which filled the prodigality of red morocco cases on her toilette.

   1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 20

   Synonyms: largesse

2. uncountableusuallyA gift; a gratuity.

   A prudent man is not impoverished by his liberalities.

3. uncountableusuallyCandor.

In a sentence

That liberality is but cast away / Which makes us borrow what we cannot pay.

1668, John Denham, Of Justice (poem)

Where it comes from

1. Latinlīberālitās“a noble, kind, or friendly disposition; generosity”
2. Old Frenchliberalité
3. Middle Englishliberalite
4. Englishliberality

From Middle English liberalite, from Old French liberalité, from Latin līberālitās (“a noble, kind, or friendly disposition; generosity”), equivalent to liberal + -ity.