different between help vs free

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English

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?lp, IPA^(key): /h?lp/
• Rhymes: -?lp

Etymology 1

From Middle English help, from Old English help (“help, aid, assistance, relief”), from Proto-Germanic *help? (“help”), *hilpiz, *hulpiz, from Proto-Indo-European *?elb-, *?elp- (“to help”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälpe (“help”), West Frisian help (“help”), Dutch hulp (“help”), Low German Hülp (“help”), German Hilfe (“help, aid, assistance”), Danish hjælp (“help”), Swedish hjälp (“help”), Norwegian hjelp (“help”).

Noun

help (usually uncountable, plural helps)

1. (uncountable) Action given to provide assistance; aid.

2. (usually uncountable) Something or someone which provides assistance with a task.

3. Documentation provided with computer software, etc. and accessed using the computer.

4. (usually uncountable) One or more people employed to help in the maintenance of a house or the operation of a farm or enterprise.

5. (uncountable) Correction of deficits, as by psychological counseling or medication or social support or remedial training.

Usage notes

• The sense “people employed to help in the maintenance of a house” is usually an uncountable mass noun. A countable form - “a hired help”, “two hired helps” - is attested, but now less common. Helper could be used if no more specific noun is available.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:help.

Synonyms

• (action given to provide assistance): aid, assistance

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan (“to help, aid, assist, benefit, relieve, cure”), from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, Proto-Germanic *helpan? (“to help”), from Proto-Indo-European *?elb-, *?elp- (“to help”).

Cognate with West Frisian helpe (“to help”), Dutch helpen (“to help”), Low German helpen, hölpen (“to help”), German helfen (“to help”), Danish hjælpe (“to help”), Norwegian hjelpe (“to help”), Lithuanian šelpti (“to help, support”).

Verb

help (third-person singular simple present helps, present participle helping, simple past helped or (archaic) holp, past participle helped or (archaic) holpen)

1. (transitive) To provide assistance to (someone or something).

2. (transitive) To assist (a person) in getting something, especially food or drink at table; used with to.

3. (transitive) To contribute in some way to.

4. (intransitive) To provide assistance.

5. (transitive) To avoid; to prevent; to refrain from; to restrain (oneself). Usually used in nonassertive contexts with can.

Usage notes

• Use 4 is often used in the imperative mood as a call for assistance.
• In uses 1, 2, 3 and 4, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. It can also take the bare infinitive with no change in meaning.
• In use 5, can't help is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) or, with but, the bare infinitive.
• For more information, see Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

• (provide assistance to): aid, assist, come to the aid of, help out; See also Thesaurus:help
• (contribute in some way to): contribute to
• (provide assistance): assist; See also Thesaurus:assist

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

help!

1. A cry of distress or an urgent request for assistance

   (Robin Hood (1973))

Translations

Anagrams

• Pehl

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch helpen, from Middle Dutch helpen, from Old Dutch helpan, from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, from Proto-Germanic *helpan?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???lp/

Verb

help (present help, present participle helpende, past participle gehelp)

1. to help

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?lp

Verb

help

1. first-person singular present indicative of helpen
2. imperative of helpen

Esperanto

Etymology

From the bare root of helpi, following the model of English help! considered as internationally understood.

Interjection

help

1. Help! (as a cry of distress)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *help?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xelp/, [he?p]

Noun

help f

1. help

Descendants

• Middle English: help
  • English: help
  • Scots: help

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) , “help”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old Norse

Verb

help

1. first-person singular present indicative active of hjalpa

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English help.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?lp/

Noun

help m (uncountable, not mutable)

1. help, aid

   Synonyms: cymorth, cynhorthwy

Derived terms

• help llaw (“a helping hand”)
• helpu (“to help”)

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian helpe, from Proto-Germanic *help?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?lp/

Noun

help c (plural helpen, diminutive helpke)

1. help, assistance, aid

   Synonyms: assistinsje, bystân

Further reading

• “help (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

From Middle English free, fre, freo, from Old English fr?o (“free”), from Proto-West Germanic *fr?, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz (“beloved, not in bondage”), from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“dear, beloved”), from *preyH- (“to love, please”). Related to friend. Cognate with West Frisian frij (“free”), Dutch vrij (“free”), Low German free (“free”), German frei (“free”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian fri (“free”), Sanskrit ????? (priyá).

Germanic and Celtic are the only Indo-European language branches in which the PIE word with the meaning of "dear, beloved" acquired the additional meaning of "free" in the sense of "not in bondage". This was an extension of the idea of "characteristic of those who are dear and beloved", in other words friends and tribe members (in contrast to unfree inhabitants from other tribes and prisoners of war, many of which were among the slaves – compare the Latin use of liberi to mean both "free persons" and "children of a family").

The verb comes from Middle English freen, freo?en, from Old English fr?on, fr?o?an (“to free; make free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frij?n, from Proto-Germanic *frij?n?, from Proto-Indo-European *preyH-.

Pronunciation

• enPR: fr?, IPA^(key): /f?i?/, [f??i?]
• Rhymes: -i?
• Homophone: three (with th-fronting)

Adjective

free (comparative freer, superlative freest)

1. (social) Unconstrained.
   • 1610-11?, Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, scene i:

     Quickly, spirit! / Thou shalt ere long be free.

   Synonyms: unconstrained, unfettered, unhindered

   Antonyms: constrained, restricted

   1. Not imprisoned or enslaved.

      Antonyms: bound, enslaved, imprisoned

   2. Unconstrained by timidity or distrust

      Synonyms: unreserved, frank, communicative
   3. Generous; liberal.

   4. (obsolete) Clear of offence or crime; guiltless; innocent.
   5. Without obligations.

   6. Thrown open, or made accessible, to all; to be enjoyed without limitations; unrestricted; not obstructed, engrossed, or appropriated; open; said of a thing to be possessed or enjoyed.
   7. Not arbitrary or despotic; assuring liberty; defending individual rights against encroachment by any person or class; instituted by a free people; said of a government, institutions, etc.

   8. (software) With no or only freedom-preserving limitations on distribution or modification.

      Synonym: libre

      Antonym: proprietary

   9. (software) Intended for release, as opposed to a checked version.
2. Obtainable without any payment.

   Synonyms: free of charge, gratis

   1. (by extension, chiefly advertising slang) complimentary

3. (abstract) Unconstrained.
   1. (mathematics) Unconstrained by relators.

   2. (mathematics, logic) Unconstrained by quantifiers.

      Antonym: bound

   3. (programming) Unconstrained of identifiers, not bound.

      Synonym: unbound

      Antonym: bound

   4. (linguistics) (of a morpheme) That can be used by itself, unattached to another morpheme.
4. (physical) Unconstrained.
   1. Unobstructed, without blockages.

      Synonyms: clear, unobstructed

      Antonyms: blocked, obstructed

   2. Unattached or uncombined.

      Synonyms: loose, unfastened; see also Thesaurus:loose

   3. Not currently in use; not taken; unoccupied.

   4. (botany, mycology) Not attached; loose.
5. Without; not containing (what is specified); exempt; clear; liberated.

   Synonym: without

6. (dated) Ready; eager; acting without spurring or whipping; spirited.

7. (dated) Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; followed by of.
8. (Britain, law, obsolete) Certain or honourable; the opposite of base.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)

9. (law) Privileged or individual; the opposite of common.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)

Antonyms

• unfree

Hyponyms

• -free

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

free (comparative more free, superlative most free)

1. Without needing to pay.

   Synonyms: for free, for nothing

2. (obsolete) Freely; willingly.

Translations

Verb

free (third-person singular simple present frees, present participle freeing, simple past and past participle freed)

1. (transitive) To make free; set at liberty; release.
2. (transitive) To rid of something that confines or oppresses.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 564:

     Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this strait. If I escape, I have my desire and I vow to Allah Almighty to forswear travel; and if I perish I shall be at peace and shall rest from toil and moil."

Derived terms

• befree

Synonyms

• befree
• emancipate
• let loose
• liberate
• manumit
• release
• unchain
• unfetter
• unshackle

Translations

Noun

free (plural frees)

1. (Australian rules football, Gaelic football) Abbreviation of free kick.
   • 2006, [1]:

     Whether deserved or not, the free gave Cresswell the chance to cover himself in glory with a shot on goal after the siren.

2. free transfer
3. (hurling) The usual means of restarting play after a foul is committed, where the non-offending team restarts from where the foul was committed.
4. (swimming) the freestyle stroke

Translations

References

Anagrams

• feer, fere, reef

Galician

Verb

free

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of frear
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of frear

Low German

Alternative forms

• frie (more common)

Etymology

From Middle Low German vrîe, variant of vrî, from Old Saxon fr?, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *prey (“new”). Compare Dutch vrij, West Frisian frij, English free, German frei.

Adjective

free (comparative fre'er, superlative freest)

1. (rather rare) free

Declension

Derived terms

• Freeheit