Laissez-faire literally means "let loose and do" — and the phrase was a French merchant's retort to a government minister who asked how the state could help: "Leave us alone."
A policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering; specifically, an economic doctrine opposing government regulation of commerce.
From French laissez faire, literally let do or let it be, from laissez (imperative of laisser, to let, to allow, from Latin laxāre, to loosen) + faire (to do, to make, from Latin facere, to do, to make). The phrase is attributed to 18th-century French physiocrat economists who advocated minimal government intervention in trade. Key roots: laxāre (Latin: "to loosen, to relax"), facere (Latin: "to do, to make").
The phrase laissez-faire is traditionally attributed to the French merchant Legendre, who reportedly told finance minister Colbert in 1680: "Laissez-nous faire" (Let us do it). The fuller version — laissez faire, laissez passer (let do, let pass) — was the slogan of the Physiocrats, 18th-century French economists who believed that natural economic laws would produce optimal outcomes without government interference. Adam Smith adopted similar ideas