unfettered

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 7, 2012 is: unfettered • \un-FET-erd\  • adjective : free, unrestrained Examples: 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." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.