My Understanding of Conservativism has changed as Life revealed itself

[Metaphorical]

8. Terminology

It should be noted that "Conservative" and "Liberal" were both terms first invented by conservatives.

Conservatives preserve "social values" or "economic values", typically the status quo power structures. By and large the attitude can be thought of as the propagation of privilege, though of course this is never actually brought up where others can hear. In general, liberals (at least in US usage) can be taken to mean anything that is not conservative, meaning anything that threatens those who benefit from the status quo.