libre

Sense 1 (“especially of the will: free, independent”) is borrowed from French libre (“at liberty, free; clear, free, vacant; free, without obligation”), from Latin līber (“free, unrestricted”),^[1] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ- (“people”).

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 (“free: not enslaved or imprisoned; without obligation; unconstrained by distrust or timidity; not containing, without”), from the same Latin etymon as above.

• Sense 1:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈliːbɹə/, [ˈlibʁ]
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlibɹə/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

  • Homophone: Libra
• Sense 2:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈliːbɹə/, /-bɹeɪ/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlibɹə/, /-bɹeɪ/
• Rhymes: -iːbɹə
• Hyphenation: li‧bre

libre (not comparable)

1. (obsolete, rare) Especially of the will: free, independent, unconstrained.
   • 1599, Alexander Hume, “Of Gods Benefites Bestowed vpon Man”, in Hymnes, or Sacred Songs, […], Edinburgh: Printed by Robert Walde-graue, […], →OCLC; republished as John Gardiner Kinnear, editor, Hymns and Sacred Songs, […] (Bannatyne Club Publications; 41), Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Co. [for the Bannatyne Club], 1832, →OCLC, page 10:

     He [God] Adame lent a libre will to follow what he liſt, / And with his holy ſpirit, and grace his choſen dois aſſiſt: [...]

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

   Synonyms: free, free as in speech, free as in freedom

   Coordinate terms: free, free of charge, free as in beer, costless, feeless, gratis

   • 1999 February, Alessandro Rubini, “Software Libre and Commercial Viability”, in Marjorie Richardson, editor, Linux Journal: The Monthly Magazine of the Linux Community, number 58, Seattle, Wash.: Specialized System Consultants, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 48, column 1:

     One more point leads toward Free Software in education: when students get jobs, they prefer to use tools they learned at school in order to minimize extra learning efforts. This fact should lead colleges to teach only those tools not owned by anyone—those that are libre.

   • 2005, Philippe Aigrain, “Libre Software Policies at the European Level”, in Joseph Feller, Brian Fitzgerald, Scott A. Hissam, Karim R. Lakhani, editors, Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software, Cambridge, Mass., London: MIT Press, →ISBN, pages 454–455:

     The great potential of libre software for development and social inclusion has long been emphasized. The cost aspect of it, though it might act as a driver, is only one limited aspect of the benefits of libre software in developing countries, deprived regions, or urban areas. The empowerment of persons and groups to not only use technology, but understand it, at the level and rhythm that fits them, with the resulting ability to become active contributors and to innovate are the essence of libre software.

   • 2012, Alma Swan, “Section 3. The Importance of Open Access.”, in Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Open Access (Open Guidelines Series), Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, →ISBN, section 3.2 (Levels of Open Access), page 25, column 2:

     The formal definition of Open Access, however, does require re-use rights to enable the article to be re-used in various ways (text-mined, translated into other languages, used in part in other products, etc.), [...]. This is what is known as ‘libre’ Open Access. ‘Libre’ Open Access does not yet constitute the bulk of Open Access literature. In institutional repositories the majority of articles are of the ‘gratis’ type, though a small proportion carry an appropriate (usually Creative Commons) licence and are ‘libre’.

   • 2014, Joshua M. Pearce, “Introduction to Open-source Hardware for Science”, in Open-source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs, Waltham, Mass., Kidlington, Oxfordshire: Elsevier, →ISBN, section 1.2 (What is Open Source?), pages 1–2:

     Free and open-source software (F/OSS, FOSS) or free/libre/open-source software (FLOSS) is a software that is both a free software and an open source. FOSS is a computer software that is available in source code (open source) form and that can be used, studied, copied, modified, and redistributed without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients have the same rights under which it was obtained (free or libre). Free software, software libre, or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients have the same rights under which it was obtained and that manufacturers of consumer products incorporating free software provide that software as source code.

3. (historical) Not enslaved (of a black person in a French- or Spanish-colonized area, especially New Orleans).
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:libre.

Sense 2 (“(software) with very few limitations on distribution or improvement”) is chiefly used to distinguish such software (also called free software) from freeware, which is distributed free of charge or gratis (the two are not mutually exclusive).

libre (plural libres)

1. (historical) A free (not enslaved) black person in a French- or Spanish-colonized area, especially New Orleans.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:libre.

• affranchi

•   free software on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   gratis versus libre on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Erbil, Liber., birle, liber

Borrowed from Spanish libre.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlibɾe/ [ˈl̪ib.ɾe]
• Hyphenation: lib‧re

líbre (Basahan spelling ᜎᜒᜊ᜔ᜍᜒ)

1. gratis; free of charge; for free
2. free; unconstrained

   Synonym: talingkas

líbre (Basahan spelling ᜎᜒᜊ᜔ᜍᜒ)

1. gratis; free of charge; for free

Borrowed from Spanish libre.

• Hyphenation: lib‧re
• IPA^(key): /ˈlibɾe/ [ˈl̪ib.ɾ̪e]

líbre (Badlit spelling ᜎᜒᜊ᜔ᜇᜒ)

1. without charge; free, gratis
2. not married; single
3. at liberty
4. without burden

líbre (Badlit spelling ᜎᜒᜊ᜔ᜇᜒ)

1. to treat, to provide someone with (food, drink, or entertainment) at one's own expense
2. to pay for another person's purchase

From Spanish libre. The sense "free of charge" is semantic loan from English free (Spanish uses gratis for that sense).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlibɾe/, [ˈli.bɾe]
• Hyphenation: li‧bre

libre

1. free
2. free of charge; gratis

Inherited from Middle French libre, from Old French libre, semi-learned form of livre (ca. 1200), from Latin līber (“free”), from Old Latin loeber, from Proto-Italic *louðeros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ-er-os, from *h₁lewdʰ- (“people”).

• IPA^(key): /libʁ/
• Homophone: libres
• Hyphenation: libre

libre (plural libres)

1. free, at liberty

   Un homme libre ― a free man

   • 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social, page 2; English translation from G. D. H. Cole, transl., The Social Contract, 1913, page 5:

     L’Homme eſt né libre, & par-tout il eſt dans les fers.

     Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

   • 1946, Jean-Paul Sartre, L’existentialisme est un humanisme‎^[1]; English translation by Philip Mairet, transl., Existentialism is a Humanism‎^[2], 1956:

     […] l’homme est condamné à être libre. Condamné, parce qu’il ne s’est pas créé lui-même, et par ailleurs cependant libre, parce qu’une fois jeté dans le monde, il est responsable de tout ce qu’il fait.

     […] man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything he does.

2. clear, free, vacant

   la voie est libre ― the way is clear

3. free, without obligation

   temps libre ― free time

4. (sports) freestyle

• → Alemannic German: liiber
• → English: libre
• → Romanian: liber

• “libre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• liber

• livre (reintegrationist)

• IPA^(key): /ˈlibɾe/ [ˈli.β̞ɾɪ]
• Rhymes: -ibɾe
• Hyphenation: li‧bre

From Old Galician-Portuguese libre, livre (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin līber.

libre m or f (plural libres)

1. free, not captive, unbound
2. void; exempt

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “livre”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “liure”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “libre”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “libre”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “libre”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

libre

1. inflection of librar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Borrowed from Spanish libre.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlibɾe/ [ˈli.bɾe]
• Hyphenation: li‧bre

líbre

1. free; without charge; gratis

• IPA^(key): /ˈli.bre/
• Rhymes: -ibre
• Hyphenation: lì‧bre

libre f

1. plural of libra

• berli

From Old French libre, from Latin līber.

libre m or f (plural libres)

1. free; at liberty

• French: libre

From Latin lībra.

libre f (plural libres)

1. scales

• libre on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

From Old French, borrowed from Latin līber (“free”).

libre m or f

1. (Jersey) free

From Old Occitan libre, borrowed from Latin librum.

• IPA^(key): [ˈliβɾe]

• Audio:

  (file)

libre m (plural libres)

1. book

libre m

1. book
   • 15th century, Codex the Palau:

     Comença lo libre de la generacio de Jesus crist fill de dauid fill de abram,

     This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin līber.

libre m (oblique and nominative feminine singular libre)

1. free; at liberty

• Middle French: libre
  • French: libre

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (libre)

Borrowed from Latin liber. Gallo-Romance cognate with Old French livre.

libre m (oblique plural libres, nominative singular libres, nominative plural libre)

1. book

• Occitan: libre

• IPA^(key): /ˈlibɾe/ [ˈli.β̞ɾe]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ibɾe
• Syllabification: li‧bre

Probably borrowed from Latin līber, from Old Latin loeber, from Proto-Italic *louðeros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ-er-os, from *h₁lewdʰ- (“people”).

libre m or f (masculine and feminine plural libres)

1. free (not imprisoned or enslaved)
2. free (unconstrained by timidity or distrust)
3. free (without obligations)
4. (grammar) free (that can be unattached to another morpheme)
5. free (without; not containing)

   Synonym: sin

• → English: libre
• → Hiligaynon: libre
• → Tagalog: libre

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

libre

1. inflection of librar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “libre”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28

Borrowed from Spanish libre. Displaced older gratis, also borrowed from Spanish.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈlibɾe/ [ˈliː.bɾɛ], /libˈɾe/ [lɪbˈɾɛ]
• Rhymes: -ibɾe, -e
• Syllabification: li‧bre, lib‧re

libre or libré (Baybayin spelling ᜎᜒᜊ᜔ᜇᜒ)

1. free; free of charge; gratis

   Synonyms: walang-bayad, gratis, bigay, (slang) sabes

2. free of responsibility

   Synonyms: walang-sagutin, malaya, di-mananagot

3. safe

   Synonym: ligtas

4. vacant; not working
5. (basketball) open

• malaya

libre or libré (Baybayin spelling ᜎᜒᜊ᜔ᜇᜒ)

1. (colloquial) treat (to a meal, etc.)

• “libre”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018