Learn English – From Latin prefixes and suffixes and its usage, does “absolute” denote “freedom” or “away from freedom”

latinvocabulary

First of all, I would like to apologize for my title's awkward formulation. English is not my mother-tongue.

I am looking at the word "absolute", which, according to Dictionary.com, has the definition

(4) free from restriction or limitation; not limited in any way: absolute command; absolute freedom.

(5) unrestrained or unlimited by a constitution, counterbalancing group, etc., in the exercise of governmental power, especially when arbitrary or despotic: an absolute monarch.

and

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin absolūtus free, unrestricted, unconditioned (past participle of absolvere to absolve), equivalent to ab- ab- + solū- loosen + -tus past participle suffix

I understand that the Latin prefix abs- means "away from" or "opposite to". However, when abs- is combined with solū, or "loosen", the meaning seems to become "away from being loose" or "restricted" — the opposite of being free.

I also understand that words like absolutism or absolute power imply the object has ultimate freedom to rule even though its subjects are restrained, but then, say, if we describe the "law of conservation of energy" as an absolute principle of physics, then there is neither freedom for interpretation nor an "absolute ruler" who possess the "freedom" to legislate. (After all, it is commonly regarded as the universal truth and none "arbitrarily made up" the law.)

Then where does the freedom in "absolute" go, since there is no recipient to the freedom and everyone else is subject to the restriction? I am still confused about whether absolute conveys freedom or its opposite.

Best Answer

The OED etymology says:

from Latin absolūt-um loosened, free, separate, acquitted, completed, etc; past participle of absolv-ere: see absolve. The senses were largely taken direct from Latin, in which the development of meaning had already taken place, so that they do not form a historical series in Eng. Originally a participle -- absolved, disengaged: then an adjective -- disengaged or free from imperfection or qualification; from interference, connexion, relation, comparison, dependence; from condition, conditional forms of knowledge or thought.

The critical point is that "freedom" simply means 'separated'; that's the original source of the PIE root, which shows up also in the paradigm Greek verb λύω.

In other words, you can't tell, from the Latin affixes, what it means in English.
Because it was borrowed as a unit, with the affixes and the meanings already attached to it
by Latin speakers. The affixes are no longer productive in English, though they can be helpful.

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