'free-carpelled' originates from Modern English as a compound of 'free' and 'carpel'. 'free' comes from Old English 'frēo' where 'frēo' meant 'not bound, exempt'; 'carpel' originates from New Latin 'carpellum', ultimately from Greek 'karpos' where 'karpos' meant 'fruit'.

'carpel' changed from New Latin 'carpellum' (used in botanical Latin) derived from Greek 'karpos' and entered English botanical vocabulary as 'carpel'; later, in Modern English, the compound adjective 'free-carpelled' was formed to describe the condition of having separate carpels (apocarpy).

Initially, the Greek root 'karpos' meant 'fruit', but in botanical Latin it shifted to denote the ovule-bearing unit now called a 'carpel'. Over time the compound 'free-carpelled' came to mean specifically 'having separate (unfused) carpels' rather than any general sense of 'fruit'.