︎libero n. in volleyball, a restricted, roaming back row player. Etymological Note: From Italian adj. libero ‘free,’ a shortened form of battitore libero ‘free beater,’ a similar position in soccer that originated with a Milanese team in the late 1960s. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that...
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What is the correct punutuation of the volleyball term “libero”