Emancipate
/ɪˈmænsɪˌpeɪt/noun
To free someone from legal, social, or political restrictions.
Did you know?Emancipate comes from the Roman legal act of manumission, where a person was symbolically released from a master’s hand, making the word a literal spell of liberation through law.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*man-
“hand”
Latin
Latin
manus
“hand”
Classical Latin
Latin
emancipāre
“to release a son or slave from a father's legal power; to transfer out of the control of another”
Late Latin / Medieval Latin
Latin
emancipatus
“freed from authority or ownership”
16th Century
English
emancipate
“to free from legal control or bondage”
Modern English
English
emancipate
“to free someone from legal, social, or political restrictions”
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