liberal artsyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[liberal arts 词源字典]
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.[liberal arts etymology, liberal arts origin, 英语词源]