Word of the Day

: June 7, 2012

unfettered

adjective un-FET-erd

What It Means

: free, unrestrained

unfettered in Context

The biographer has been given unfettered access to the family's collection of personal correspondence.

"In this era of urban sprawl and unfettered development, land preservation and conservation are keys to maintaining our outdoors heritage…." - From an article by Gary Blockus in The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania), May 8, 2012

Did You Know?

A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet (as on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. The word derives from Middle English "feter" and shares a relationship with Old English "fot," meaning "foot." In current English "unfettered" typically suggests that someone or something is figuratively "unchained," or unrestrained in progress or spirit. The poet John Donne is believed to have been the first to use "unfettered" in this way, in his 1601 work The Progress of the Soule: "To an unfetterd soules quick nimble hast / Are falling stars, and hearts thoughts, but slow pac'd."