Mancipate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To release from bondage or servitude; to liberate someone from legal or physical restraint; to grant freedom or emancipation to an individual
2. The act of freeing a person from domination or ownership; setting someone free from captivity or control; delivering from subjugation or slavery
3. To make a person independent by removing constraints or ownership; the process of granting liberty or rights to a previously restrained individual; to emancipate or set at liberty from bonded status

Etymology: In Roman law, a "mancipium" was a formal sale in which the buyer took hold of the object, often with a bronze scale and witnesses present, and declared ownership. The ceremony was called "mancipatio," from "manus," meaning "hand," and "capere," meaning "to take," so the buyer literally took the thing into his hand. Slaves and land were transferred this way. The English verb mancipate, borrowed from the Latin "mancipare," means to subject someone to bondage or control. Its more familiar relative, emancipate, adds the prefix "ex-," meaning "out of," and originally described freeing a son from his father's legal authority, often through a sale that was then reversed. The definition supplied with this request describes emancipate, not mancipate, which is the opposite sense.

Synonyms: emancipate, liberate, free, release, deliver

Antonyms: enslave, imprison, captivate, confine, detain