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I noticed a company's name Libratone emphasizing that their company name meant "set sound free."

"LIBRA•TONE Our mission is in our name; Libratone – set sound free."

Does Libera work as well here? I don't know Latin nor conjugations - just a curious individual asking.

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  • It may be from French libre rather than Latin libera - or at least, influenced by the French.
    – Colin Fine
    Mar 18, 2019 at 21:14

1 Answer 1

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There's in fact quite a significant difference here!

The adjective līber, lībera, līberum means "free"; it's the root of the English words "liberty" and "liberation".

The noun lībra, lībrae means "scales" (for weighing things) or "pound" (as weighed out on a scale). It's the origin of the abbreviations "lb" and "£", and the constellation Libra.

So if you want "free", you need the "e" in there. It doesn't work without it.

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  • Right - doing my own research lead me to a similar understanding. I guess the company "Libratone" just wanted to be a bit creative or simple with their naming convention.
    – slsl3079
    Jan 5, 2018 at 8:54
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    It could presumably mean "the noise of scales".
    – fdb
    Jan 5, 2018 at 23:05
  • @fdb: Hah true. Or it could simply be an error...
    – Cerberus
    Jan 6, 2018 at 18:34

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