1 ' Free ' absolutely means 'free from any sorts constraints or controls. The context determines its different denotations, if any, as in 'free press', 'fee speech', 'free stuff' etc.
I checked Garner's Modern American Usage; although BG doesn't address free of vs. free from, he writes that the distinction between freedom of and freedom from is that the former indicates the "possession of a right" (freedom of speech) and the latter "protection from a wrong" (freedom from oppression). So free from is used to indicate protection from something problematic, and free of (which ...
"Free of" vs. "Free from" - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Free ride dates back to 1880, while free loader is a more recent construction “freeloader (n.) also free-loader, by 1939, from free (adj.) + agent noun from load (v.)As a verb, freeload is attested by 1967 and probably is a back-formation from this”
What is the opposite of free as in "free of charge" (when we speak about prices)? We can add not for negation, but I am looking for a single word.
A friend claims that the phrase for free is incorrect. Should we only say at no cost instead?
grammaticality - Is the phrase "for free" correct? - English Language ...
For example, imagine some food company decides to make their fruits permanently free. Online, you can "order" them (for free), but in person, what do you do? What would be the professiona...