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free imperial city

Today it means: A self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire that had some autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet. Full definition →

German Freie Reichsstadt ← Latin urbs imperialis libera

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The story

Latin · derived fromurbs imperialis libera
German · derived fromFreie Reichsstadt
English todayfree imperial city

A calque of German Freie Reichsstadt (short singular form of Freie und Reichsstädte) or Latin urbs imperialis libera.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.