Unbindan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Old English verb meaning to free something or someone from ties, cords, or other fastenings
2. To loosen or release what has been tied, bound, or fastened, as an archaic form of undoing a knot
3. Archaic term for freeing a person or thing from restraints by loosening the cords or straps that hold it

Etymology: Old English speakers made this verb by attaching the reversing prefix "un-" to "bindan," meaning "to bind." The result meant to undo a binding, untie or loosen what had been fastened. The prefix was a common tool for this in Old English, so "unbindan" describes an action in the same plain way the modern verb does. "Bindan" is a strong verb, one whose past tense changes its vowel rather than adding an ending. Its forms ran "bindan, band, bundon, bunden," and the same pattern survives in English "bind, bound, bound." Its roots reach back to Proto-Germanic "*bindanan," shared with Gothic, Old High German, and Old Norse, so the verb has been part of the Germanic family's vocabulary for a very long time.