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From the Dryden translation of Plutarch's life of Pompey Magnus: Gabinius, one of Pompey's friends, preferred a law, whereby there was granted to him, not only the government of the seas as admiral, but in direct words, sole and irresponsible sovereignty over all men. For the decree gave him absolute power and authority in all the seas within the pillars of Hercules, and in the adjacent mainland for the space of four hundred furlongs from the sea. http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_plutarch_pompey.htmFrom context it is obvious that irresponsible meant something different in Dryden's day -- the idea being that Pompey was not responsible to anyone, he didn't have to report back to a boss. The question is, how would you express that concept in a single word these days now that irresponsible has taken on a different meaning? Bingley
Bingley
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old hand
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old hand
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I suggest absolute (as in absolutism)
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree that it comes to the same thing, wseiber, but I think the two words have different nuances: absolute simply suggests that there are no limitations on his power, while irresponsible would seem to be more specifically saying that he's not accountable to anyone.
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Can't find anything. Irresponsible fits better with the context of *decreed* power which, after all, is not absolute.
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addict
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addict
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Unquestionable? Indisputable? Incontestable?
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TEd
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Bushlike?
Wouldn't that be more akin to the modern meaning?
Bingley
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Methinks the word is "unaccountable." Whenever there is a serious discussion of authority, there is a co-occuuring discussion of accountability. The concept here is, I think, that Gabinius was accountable to no one.
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Pooh-Bah
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"unaccountable" was what I thought of, too. But Bingley wanted a single word, and it requires a preposition -- unless you can say "unaccountable power." And maybe you can.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> Bingley wanted a single word hmm, I thought he was looking for a replacement, so unaccountable sovereignty(dang that looks wrong(ly)) would work, no? The question is, how would you express that concept in a single word these days now, that irresponsible has taken on a different meaning?change? (putting an (mis)understood comma where mayhaps it don't belong...) 
formerly known as etaoin...
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I'd go for unanswering*. Maybe unanswerable, but to me that's less clear. *I'm not sure there is a single word in English that would fully encompass the meaning as I understand it in the given sentence. I did look up unimpeachable, and found this info. on impeach interesting:
Word History: Nothing hobbles a President so much as impeachment, and there is an etymological as well as a procedural reason for this. The word impeach can be traced back through Anglo-Norman empecher to Late Latin impedicre, "to catch, entangle," from Latin pedica, "fetter for the ankle, snare." Thus we find that Middle English empechen, the ancestor of our word, means such things as "to cause to get stuck fast," "hinder or impede," "interfere with," and "criticize unfavorably." A legal sense of empechen is first recorded in 1384. This sense, which had previously developed in Old French, was "to accuse, bring charges against." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impeachHey--the French word for going fishing is pêcher , and look: Anglo-Norman empecher ..., "to catch, entangle,"
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Pooh-Bah
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>> the French word for going fishing is<<
And the German for tar *and bad luck is Pech.
***
apropos the French, does (their) word for *a* fish come from the sense of "to catch" or "the catch"?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Getting back to that single word meaning not having to answer to anyone, "untrammeled" and "unfettered" are getting a little closer but still not quite there. The refer to being unhampered, or unhindered, but don't touch the issue of being without oversight by anyone else. (Remember that ad for Levy's Jewish rye bread a few years ago -- "We answer to a higher Authority!")
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Carpal Tunnel
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Wofa, not to turn this into a food thread or anything, but isn't that the slogan for Hebrew National hot dogs?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oops.  How right you are. Oh well. I had the ethnos right, anyway.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Me: The question is, how would you express that concept in a single word these days now, that irresponsible has taken on a different meaning? (bolded comma added by eta)
Eta: change? (putting an (mis)understood comma where mayhaps it don't belong...)
I think it was Oscar Wilde who, when asked how his latest work was coming along, answered that he'd spent the morning inserting a comma and the afternoon taking it out again.
If I had put in another comma, I would've written the sentence thusly:
The question is, how would you express that concept in a single word these days, now that irresponsible has taken on a different meaning?
Bingley
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I agree unaccountable power sounds odd, otherwise I'd go for that. Of the suggestions so far, I like 'untrammelled' the best, though it's perhaps a bit wider than this former sense of 'irresponsible'.
A more modern translation (1999) gives 'unregulated'. Dr. Bill suggests 'supreme' by pm, neither of which quite fits the concept I have in mind.
It would seem that our language has been impoverished by this change in meaning of 'irresponsible'.
Bingley
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Though I do not have Plutarch's original Greek text to hand, I can only assume that the word he used was ανευθυνος [a)neu/qunos], 'not accountable, irresponsible'. (OK, it might've been ανυπευθυνος [a)nupeu/qunos].) From ευθυνω [eu)qu_/nw] 'to guide straight or direct; govern'. It occurs in Aristotle, Plato, and Thucydides. Googling on "irresponsible power" or "irresponsible sovereignty" yields other citations than Dryden's.
"Irresponsible power is inconsistent with liberty, and must corrupt those who exercise it." [John Calhoun, US lawyer and politician (1782-1850)]
One of the meanings of irresponsible in current dictionaries is still one of not being held accountable by a higher authority. (Nor is this meaning censured with an archaic or the like.) I don't see that the language has been impoverished, just some of its speakers no longer make the distinction.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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> If I had put in another comma, I would've written the sentence thusly:
I'm sorry that you went to the trouble, I was just being a dink. or perhaps just irresponsible.
formerly known as etaoin...
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