livre

Borrowed from French livre. Doublet of arratel, libbra, Libra, libra, lira, litra, litre, and rottol.

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːvɹə/, /ˈliːvə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːvɹə, -iːvə(ɹ)

livre (plural livres)

1. (historical) A unit of currency formerly used in France, divided into 20 sols or sous.
   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 115:

     They like to see them awarded comfortable pensions. Is it 700,000 livres a year to the Polignac family?

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 30:

     He never, it should be noted, totally renounced his inheritance: a critic of the court round, he benefited to the tune of a cool two million livres a year from royal largesse […] .

2. (obsolete) A lira
3. (historical) An ancient French unit of weight, equal to about 1 avoirdupois pound.

• livre tournois

• Elvir, Liver, ervil, levir, liver, rivel, viler

From Latin liber.

livre m (plural livres)

1. book

livre

1. plural of livra

• IPA^(key): /livʁ/

• Audio; “un livre”:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Paris)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

• Homophones: livres, livrent
• Rhymes: -ivʁ

Inherited from Middle French livre, from Old French livre, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin librum. The strictly inherited form would be *loivre. Doublet of liber.

livre m (plural livres)

1. book

   Synonym: bouquin

• libro-
• librairie f

• Haitian Creole: liv
• Louisiana Creole: liv
• Mauritian Creole: liv
• Seychellois Creole: liv

Inherited from Middle French livre, from Old French livre, from Latin lībra.

livre f (plural livres)

1. pound (unit of weight)
   1. (Europe, informal) metrical pound, half a kilogramme, 500 g
   2. (North America) imperial pound ≈ 454 g
   3. (historical) various values between 300 and 600 g
2. pound (unit of currency)
3. (Louisiana) grade (level)

• livre sterling

• Louisiana Creole: liv
• → English: livre
• → Romanian: livră

• franc
• sou
• chelin

livre

1. inflection of livrer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “livre - written work”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
• “livre - unit of measurement”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
• “livre - verb form”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

livre

1. alternative form of lyvere (“liver”)

From Old French livre, from Latin liber.

livre m (plural livres)

1. book

• French: livre
  • Haitian Creole: liv
  • Louisiana Creole: liv
  • Mauritian Creole: liv
  • Seychellois Creole: liv

From Old French livre, from Latin lībra.

livre f (plural livres)

1. scales
2. pound (unit of weight varying between 380g and 552g)
3. pound (unit of currency)

• French: livre
  • Louisiana Creole: liv
  • → English: livre
  • → Romanian: livră

From Old French livre, from Latin līber.

livre m or f (plural livres)

1. free; at liberty

• livre on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

From Old French livre, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin liber, librum.

livre m (plural livres)

1. (Jersey) book

• librairie (“bookshop”)

From Latin libra.

livre f (plural livres)

1. pound (unit of measure of mass)

livre n (definite singular livreet, indefinite plural livre or livreer, definite plural livrea or livreene)

1. alternative form of livré

livre n (definite singular livreet, indefinite plural livre, definite plural livrea)

1. alternative form of livré

• levri

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin liber, librum.

livre oblique singular, m (oblique plural livres, nominative singular livres, nominative plural livre)

1. book (collection of sheets of paper in a specific order)
   • 1260–1267, Brunetto Latini, “Cist premiers livres parole de la naissance de toutes choses [This first book talks about the birth of all things]” (chapter 1), Livre I - Premiere partie [First book - First part], in Livres dou Tresor [Book of the treasure]; republished as Polycarpe Chabaille, compiler, Li livres dou tresor par Brunetto Latini‎^[1], Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1863, page 1:

     si come li sires qui vuet en petit leu amasser choses de grandisme vaillance […] por acroistre son pooir […] i met il les plus chieres choses et les plus precieux joiaus que il puet, selonc sa bone entencion, tout autressi est li cors de cest livre compilez de sapience

     Just like the lord, who wishes to accumulate very valuable things in a tiny place […] in order to increase his power, […] puts there—according to his good intention—the dearest things and the most precious jewels he can, so the body of this book is filled with knowledge

From Latin lībra.

livre oblique singular, f (oblique plural livres, nominative singular livre, nominative plural livres)

1. livre (medieval French equivalent of a monetary pound)
2. pound (weight)

• According to the Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française, the actual measure varied between 380g and 552g.

• Middle French: livre
  • French: livre
    • Louisiana Creole: liv
    • → English: livre
    • → Romanian: livră

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin līber.

livre m (oblique and nominative feminine singular livre)

1. free; at liberty

• Middle French: livre

• livre on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
• Frédéric Godefroy (1880–1902), “livre”, in Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle […], Paris: F[riedrich] Vieweg; Émile Bouillon, →OCLC.

• Audio (Central-West Brazil):

  (file)

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: li‧vre

From Old Galician-Portuguese livre, libre, from Latin līber, from Old Latin loeber, from Proto-Italic *louðeros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ-er-os, from *h₁lewdʰ- (“people”).

livre m or f (plural livres)

1. free
2. unoccupied
3. clear, open

• livrar
• liberar
• liberdade
• libertar

• Guinea-Bissau Creole: livri, libri

livre m (plural livres)

1. (soccer) free kick

   Synonym: pontapé livre

• livre direto
• livre indireto

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

livre

1. inflection of livrar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “livre”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “livre”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026