The Hindu Business Line : Free, rooted in `friend'

FREE is freely doing its rounds these days, be it in free power for agriculturists, free healthcare for the elderly, hostages yet to be set free, or free trade agreements between countries. Free is a word that economists love to hate because it is as empty as a hollow `howdy' referring but to `nonexistent benefit', as Oxford's Dictionary of Business would explain: "Whenever there appears to be a free benefit, someone, somewhere, always pays for it."

That is what Indian manufacturers should be saying when threatened with lowering of import duties for air-conditioners and cordless phones from Thailand in less than a month, with free trade agreement getting a shot in the arm on the sidelines of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

Free means "not under the control of another", according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Free fall is a rapid and unstoppable decline as happens with stocks on some `black' days. Free-for-all is usually seen when scampering for water from metro tankers. Free kick is a soccer term that is not be deployed elsewhere because of the price such an action may entail. Free love does not load itself with fidelity baggage.

Free market exists when prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately-owned businesses. Free trade is not cluttered with tariffs, quotas and other restrictions, and the day's news speaks of free trade talks between US and Australia, Japan and Thailand. The word has an interesting origin: "Middle English, from Old English frEo; akin to Old High German frI free, Sanskrit priya own, dear," as Merriam-Webster Dictionary explains. It is "from an Indo-European word meaning `dear, beloved,' which is also the ancestor of English friend," explains Encarta.

Friends are rarely free these days even if you were to visit them on holidays. Some say ``if it's free it's got to be Friday,' because the sixth day of the week has its name from "Frigu, the goddess of marriage", and is probably from the root of friend and free.

`Free' is a four-letter word that customers love to see on product wrappers, but www.marketingterms.com cautions: "Although free offers are, by definition, without monetary cost, there are often non-monetary costs to be considered. Personal information is often the non-monetary currency of choice." Tracing `free' in Shakespeare free-on-the-Net, you'd find Iago say, in Othello: "And what's he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free I give and honest." In The Winter's Tale, Emilia would say: "Most worthy madam, Your honour and your goodness is so evident' That your free undertaking cannot miss/ A thriving issue." Adaptable as a useful sales pitch for IPOs. "What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly, Health shall live free and sickness freely die," sounds like a good wish from Helena in All's Well That Ends Well.

If free has a common root with friend and they both are but cousins of priya, there's all the more reason to love the word, despite the economists.

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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