means An unearned advantage, right, or immunity granted to a particular person or group, often invisible to those who hold it.

from From Latin privilegium, literally a 'private law' — privus ('private, one's own') plus lex, legis ('law'). It originally meant a law made for or against a single individual, a rule bending around one person. It entered English through Old French as privilege, carrying that same sense of a special exemption handed to the few rather than the many.