The word 畅所欲言 is formed by combining 畅, meaning "free" or "unhindered", with 所, a particle that nominalizes the following phrase, 欲, meaning "want" or "desire", and 言, meaning "speak" or "speech". This sequence constructs a literal sense of "freely speak what one wants", where 畅 modifies the action derived from 所欲言 ("what one desires to say"), resulting in an idiom that denotes speaking without inhibition.