Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[Jean-Marc Bourguet <jm@bourguet.org>]

Jeffrey Carter <jrcarter@acm.org> writes:

> Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> > 
> > Since certain people here in comp.lang.ada say that the English
> > word "free" is overloaded, perhaps someone could answer a slightly
> > off-topic question.  The choices in French, as I understand it, are
> > "libre" and "gratis".  Which one of those corresponds to the use of
> > "free" in the English phrase "bug-free" ?
> 
> Since "bug free" implies freedom from bugs, similar to freedom from
> oppression, I would guess "libre". However, this really seems to be more
> like a 3rd overloading of the word. The French would actually say
> something along the lines of "sans insects".

That would be "sans insectes" but we use "bug" or "bogue" for this
meaning of bug, so "sans bogues", "sans bugs".  "Libre" is sometimes
used also with the meaning "without" so "libre de bugs/bogues" would
also be correct but I don't remeber seeing it used.

-- 
Jean-Marc