libre

The story

1. Spanish · borrowed fromcognate libre
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₁lewdʰ-“people”
3. Latin · derived fromlīber“free, unrestricted”
4. French · borrowed fromlibre“at liberty”; “free” as in “clear”, “vacant”, “without obligation”
5. English todaylibre

The obsolete “unconstrained” sense is borrowed from French libre (“at liberty”; “free” as in “clear”, “vacant”, “without obligation”), from Latin līber (“free, unrestricted”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ- (“people”), whence obsolete English lede (“person(s)”), English leud, and German Leute. The software and the unenslaved senses are either borrowed from the above French, or from its Spanish cognate libre, of the same meaning and Latin etymon.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from late 20th c. With very few limitations on distribution or the right to access the source code to create improved versions, but not necessarily free of charge.