libre

Meanings

Adjective

• Especially of the will: free, independent, unconstrained.
• With very few limitations on distribution or the right to access the source code to create improved versions, but not necessarily free of charge.
• Not enslaved .

Noun

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

Origin

• Sense 1 (“especially of the will: free, independent”) is borrowed from French libre, from Latin līber, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ-.
• Senses 2 (“(software) with very few limitations on distribution or improvement”) and 3 ("not enslaved") are either borrowed from the French word or the Spanish libre, from the same Latin etymon as above.