manumission

English

WOTD – 28 August 2015

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin manūmissiō.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mænjʊˈmɪʃən/
    • (file)

Noun

manumission (countable and uncountable, plural manumissions)

  1. Release from slavery or other legally sanctioned servitude; the giving of freedom; the act of manumitting.
    • 1823, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter IV, in The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; [], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: Charles Wiley;  [], →OCLC:
      The manumission of the slaves in New York has been gradual.
    • 1867, John Lord, The Old Roman World: the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization:
      The most important law of Augustus, was the lex oelia sentia, deserving of all praise, which related to the manumission of slaves.
    • 1881, Grant Allen, chapter 19, in Anglo-Saxon Britain:
      In the west, and especially in Cornwall, the names of the serfs were mainly Celtic,—Griffith, Modred, Riol, and so forth,—as may be seen from the list of manumissions preserved in a mass-book at St. Petroc's, or Padstow.
    • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:
      The more innocent dreamed of a manumission kindly bestowed by the new Emperor as one of a number of acts of justice and clemency proper to a new reign.
    • 2012 November 30, Paul Finkelman, “The Real Thomas Jefferson: The Monster of Monticello”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 August 2015:
      Rather than encouraging his countrymen to liberate their slaves, he opposed both private manumission and public emancipation.

Translations

See also

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin manūmissiōnem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ma.ny.mi.sjɔ̃/
  • (file)

Noun

manumission f (plural manumissions)

  1. (historical) manumission
    Synonym: affranchissement

Further reading

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