This week’s theme
Back-formations

This week’s words
vicissitude
trenchant
untrammeled
pillory

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(uhn-TRAM-uhld)

MEANING:

adjective: Not limited or restricted.

ETYMOLOGY:

From un- (not) + trammel (a restriction or hindrance), from Old French tramail, from Latin tremaculum (a three-layered fishing net), from tres (three) + macula (mesh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root trei- (three), which also gave us three, testify (to be the third person: to bear witness), and triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13). Earliest documented use: 1795.

NOTES:

Originally, a trammel referred to a clever (and for fish, quite diabolical!) fishing net with three layers: the outer ones with wide mesh, the inner with finer mesh. A fish would swim through the large holes, only to be trapped in the inner web. A real net-work of trouble.

USAGE:

“The decision ... to look into the banks’ failure to pass on the benefits of interest rate cuts has not been met with untrammelled joy by the investment community. AIB-owned Goodbody Stockbrokers was particularly trenchant in its criticism.”
FSRA’s Interest Not Welcomed by Banks; Irish Times (Dublin); Jul 11, 2003.

See more usage examples of untrammeled in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: