[xorcist]

This is complete revisionism. The OSI set out to create a new term, one that they could trademark and would otherwise match the meaning and intention of "free software".

They may have failed in the end, for a numer of reasons, but they were very rigorous in their search of prior usage and very open about their work. We can speculate in retrospect about what could have done differently, but saying they used an existing term is wrong both in intent and in practice.