libre

Meanings

1. Especially of the will: free, independent, unconstrained.
2. With very few limitations on distribution or the right to access the source code to create improved versions, but not necessarily free of charge.
3. Not enslaved (of a black person in a French- or Spanish-colonized area, especially New Orleans).

1. A free (not enslaved) black person in a French- or Spanish-colonized area, especially New Orleans.

Etymology

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.