Word Origin Middle English: from Old French livree ‘delivered’, feminine past participle of livrer, from Latin liberare ‘liberate’ (in medieval Latin ‘hand over’). The original sense was ‘the dispensing of food, provisions, or clothing to servants’; hence livery1 (sense 4), also ‘allowance of provender for horses’, surviving in the phrase at livery and in livery stable. livery1 (sense 1) arose because medieval nobles provided matching clothes to distinguish their servants from others'.