free spirit

plural free spirits

1. One who is a nonconformist or who does not recognize the authority of others.

   But Lucifer was a free spirit. To serve was to suffocate.

   1904, Jack London, chapter 26, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   —“And thou,” said Zarathustra to the wanderer and shadow, “thou callest and thinkest thyself a free spirit? And thou here practisest such idolatry and hierolatry?

   1917, Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Thomas Common, Thus Spake Zarathustra

   Writing in the Victorian era, Scientist Ellis (Psychology of Sex) idolized Casanova as a free spirit, a man who had the courage to live life fully, and as a shining example of "adjustment"—for Casanova adapted himself so easily to his own desires.

   1959 October 19, “Books: Rake's Progress”, in Time, archived from the original on 01 Aug 2012

   To many bosses, a beard is a dangerous sign, like a neck tattoo or a pierced nose, that says, “I am a free spirit, not a team player.”

   2011 July 27, Alex Williams, “What Your Beard Says About You”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 Jul 2011

   Synonyms: eccentric, heteroclite, individualist, eccentric, heteroclite, deviant, deviate, individualist

2. historicalA member of the organized heretic movement Brethren of the Free Spirit in opposition of the Catholic Church from the 13th to 15th centuries.

   Free spirits sought paradise with the claim that only through the affirmation of sin could one negate it. The partisan of the Free Spirit did not incarnate sin. He […] incarnated God.

   1989, Greil Marcus, “The assault on Notre-Dame”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009