Origin: Latin suffix -ous
Gratuitous has 4 different meanings across 1 category:
costing nothing
"complimentary tickets"
"free admission"
unnecessary and unwarranted
"a strikers' tent camp...was burned with needless loss of life"
Given freely; unearned.
The word gratuitous comes from the Latin term gratuītus, which means "free." This root traces back to grātia, meaning "favor," and its related form grātus, meaning "showing favor."