Unyoke

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ʌnˈjəʊk/

Definitions

1. To physically remove a yoke or harness from an animal or object ; to liberate someone or something from control, restriction, or hardship
2. To take off a device used for linking animals together ; to release from oppression or any form of bondage
3. To detach a object from the wooden crosspiece joining draft animals ; to set free from servitude or any oppressive circumstance

Etymology: "Unyoke" is a plain formation: the prefix "un-", meaning "reverse the action of", attached to "yoke." The "yoke" half is the older and more interesting part. It comes from an Indo-European root meaning "to join," the same ancestry as "yoke" in Latin "iugum," which is where English gets words like "conjugal" and "subjugate." The yoke itself was the wooden frame that bound a pair of oxen together so they pulled as one, and the verb "to yoke" later stretched to mean any joining, including people in marriage or partnership. The verb is Old English in origin, appearing as "unġeocian," so the idea of freeing an animal from its harness is about as old as the language itself. Middle English carried it forward as "unyoken," and the sense of release from bondage grew naturally out of the literal task of taking the yoke off a working beast. The word's core image has always been the same: a creature that is no longer tied to labour or a partner.

Synonyms: detach, disengage, release

Antonyms: yoke, attach, bind