Other forms: fetters
A fetter is a chain fastened round a prisoner's ankle. In fetters, strike off the fetters, iron fetters.
The figurative plural is the living use, and the fetters of convention or of debt are anything holding somebody back. The word comes from the same root as foot, since a fetter goes on the ankle.
1nounfetterA chain fastened round a prisoner's ankle.
“The prisoner's fetters clanked on the stone floor as he shuffled along.”
fetter is a restraint.
Old English feter comes from a root meaning foot, since the chain goes on the ankle.
Proto-Indo-European
*ped- — to step, walk; to fall, stumble
Proto-Germanic
*feturaz — fetter
Proto-West Germanic
*fetur
Old English
feter
Middle English
feter
English, today
fetter
From Middle English feter, from Old English feter, Proto-West Germanic fetur, from Proto-Germanic feturaz (“fetter”), from Proto-Indo-European ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). Related to foot. 2 Cognate with Dutch veter (“cable, chain, hawser; bond, fetter”), Faroese fjøtur (“fetter”), Icelandic fjötur (“fetter”), Swedish fjätter (“fetter, shackle”); also Irish feadh (“extent, length”), feá (“fathom”), Scottish Gaelic feadh (“extent, length; fathom”), ltg pāda (“foot”), Latvian pēda (“foot”), Lithuanian pėda (“foot”), be па́даць (“to fall”), Bulgarian па́дам (“to grop, fall”), Czech padat (“to fall”), Polish padać (“to fall”), Russian па́дать (“to fall”), Serbo-Croatian padati, падати (“to fall”), Slovene padati (“to fall”), Ukrainian па́дати (“to fall”), Latin peior, pejor (“worse”), Ancient Greek πέδη (“fetter, shackle; anklet, bangle”), Armenian ետ (“back, backward”), հետ (“back; with”), os фестӕг, фистӕг (“pedestrian”), peo 𐎱𐎿𐎫𐎡 (“foot soldier, infantryman”), Sanskrit पद्यते (“to fall, topple; to perish”), hit 𒁉𒂊𒁕𒀭 (“place; floor, ground”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA