What is the origin/motivation for the adjective "free" in the term "free object"?


Does it refer to them coming "for free" (as being constructed from a set in a straight-forward manner) or does it refer some type of freedom they enjoy?



Why are free objects "free"?
Free objects were first defined\* by MacLane in [Duality for Groups.](https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.bams/1183515045) That paper gives "free" a curious political context, I quote from page 486:



> 
> Call the dual (in this sense) of a free (nonabelian) group a fascist
>  group. R . Baer has shown me a proof of the elegant theorem: every
>  fascist group consists only of the identity element.
> 
> 
> 


You can find a critical discussion of this joke on "freedom versus fascism" at [nForum](https://nforum.ncatlab.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=1768) and at [MSE.](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1380849/are-there-any-free-or-fascist-boolean-algebras)




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\*As pointed out by Lee Mosher and Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine, free groups were introduced much earlier. MacLane's 1950 paper gave the first definition of a free object in the context of an arrow composition from category theory.


