Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
half-free. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
half-free, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
half-free in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
half-free you have here. The definition of the word
half-free will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
half-free, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English *half-free, from Old English healffrēo (“half-free”), equivalent to half- + free. Cognate with Dutch halfvrij (“half-free”), German halbfrei (“half-free”), Danish halvfri (“half-free”).
Adjective
half-free (not comparable)
- Halfway or partially free.
2013, Matthew W. Cody, Peter Stuyvesant: Dutch Leader of New Netherland (New York):Many half-free slaves were forced to continue to work for the Dutch West India Company even after they were set free, and the company even required half-free blacks to pay a yearly tax consisting of crops that they had raised on their farms.
2014, William Easterly, The Tyranny of Experts:“Half-free” meant that the slaves themselves were now free, but their children would return to slavery. The Dutch gave a half-free slave named Gratia d'Angola a 10acre farm in the 1640s, centered around what is today one block of Greene Street between Prince Street and Houston Street, in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.
2015, Ernst van den Hemel, Asja Szafraniec, Words: Religious Language Matters:Yet first, the anonymous rabbis and students begin the sequence of explorations in legality of marriage between half-free people by using more general rules of betrothal.
Synonyms