English

-free

/fɹiː/
Free from; devoid of; without.

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    Origin

    From Middle English -fre, -freo (as in scotfre, gauelfre, gafolfreo, etc.), from Old English -frēo ("free; free from"; as in scotfrēo, gafolfrēo), from Proto-West Germanic *-frī (“-free”). Compare Dutch -vrij (“-free”), German -frei (“-free”), Danish -fri (“-free”), Swedish -fri (“-free”), Norwegian -fri (“-free”). More at free.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle English-fre
      • inheritedOld Englishfrēo “freeborn”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*friu
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*frijaz “beloved, not in bondage”

    Related: Dutch -vrij, German -frei, Danish -fri, Swedish -fri, Norwegian -fri

    Words built on it: point-free

    Sources