v. "unloose"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

Details magazine, September 2006, notes on contributors, p. 77:

Driving home to Spokane after 9/11, Jess Walter saw a sign: GOD BLESS
AMERICA.  NEW FURNITURE ARRIVING EVERY DAY.  "I was unloosed by this
thing--with no clue how to react," he recalls.  It inspired the
drifting, disoriented hero of his chilling new novel...

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"was unloosed by"?  is this an extension from "be undone" 'be
ruined' (rather than 'be unfastened', a meaning shared by "be
unloosed")?  or what?

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

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