Mancipates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To liberate someone from servitude or legal bondage ; to transfer ownership or formal possession by a legal process ; to release or free from control or dominance
2. To free a person from slavery or legal restrictions ; to convey property or rights through a formal or legal act ; to emancipate or set free from an imposed authority
3. To formally release someone from a subordinate position or dependent status ; to hand over possession or rights under law ; to grant freedom or independence from control or restraint

Etymology: "Mancipates" is the third-person singular present form of "mancipate", a verb meaning to set someone free. The base verb comes from the Latin "mancipare", which was a legal term in ancient Rome for formally transferring ownership of property, and "manceps", a buyer or purchaser, was built from "manus" (hand) and "capere" (to take). The phrase "to take into the hand" captured the physical gesture that once sealed such a transaction. Because the Roman transfer involved a symbolic grasp, the verb's history runs in a curious direction: a word for taking possession came to mean its opposite, liberating a person from control. The sense of releasing someone from bondage is the one English kept, so the verb now describes a freeing act rather than a binding one.

Synonyms: transfers, conveys, sells