emancipate

English

WOTD – 19 June 2025

Etymology

PIE word
*h₁eǵʰs

Learned borrowing from Latin ēmancipātus (“liberated, emancipated”) + English -ate (suffix forming verbs, and adjectives with the sense ‘characterized by the specified thing’). Ēmancipātus is the perfect passive participle of ēmancipō (“to declare (someone) free and independent of another’s power, emancipate; to give (something) from one’s authority or power into that of another, to alienate, transfer; to cause (oneself or someone) to become another’s slave; to make (someone) subservient”), from ē- (a variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’)) + mancipō (“to sell; to transfer”) (from manceps (“owner, possessor; purchaser; etc.”) + -ō (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs));[1][2] and manceps is from Proto-Italic *manukaps, from *manus (“hand”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon; to signal”)) + *-kaps (suffix denoting a catcher) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grab, seize; to hold”); referring to one who catches something in the hand).

The verb emancipate has sense 1.1 (“to set free”) and sense 1.3 (“(obsolete) to place under one’s control”) which are contradictory. The Latin word ēmancipō had the same senses, and the Oxford English Dictionary notes that according to the Latin grammarian Paulus Festus (fl. 8th century) this is because both actions were effected by the legal process of mancipation.[1]

Pronunciation

Verb

emancipate (third-person singular simple present emancipates, present participle emancipating, simple past and past participle emancipated)

  1. (transitive)
    2. To set free (a person or group) from the oppression or restraint of another; to liberate.
      • 1626 January 4 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), John Donne, “Sermon III. Preached on Christmas-Day, 1625.”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 54:
        [T]his was his [God's] first work,to redeem, to vindicate them from the usurper, to deliver them from the intruder, to emancipate them from the tyrant, to cancel the covenant between hell and them, and restore them. so far to their liberty, as that they might come to their first Master if they would: this was redeeming.
        The spelling has been modernized.
      • 2005, Robert M. Citino, “‘Disgrace and Redemption’: The Prussian Army in the Napoleonic Wars”, in The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich (Modern War Studies), Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, →ISBN, page 128:
        Enlightened ministers like Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg enacted a comprehensive series of domestic reforms. They transformed backward, semifeudal Prussia into a modern state: abolishing serfdom, granting self-government to towns, with elected town councils replacing royal appointees; and formally emancipating the Jews, granting them full citizenship for the first time, even if full social acceptance remained wanting.
      1. To cause (a place) to be free from the colonization or rule of another entity.
        (from colonization): Synonym: decolonize
        to emancipate a colony
        • 1869, Bret Harte, “[Stories.] The Right Eye of the Commander.”, in The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (The Riverside Library), Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company […], →OCLC, page 185:
          Abundant harvests and patient industry amply supplied the wants of Presidio and Mission. Isolated from the family of nations, the wars which shook the world concerned them not so much as the last earthquake; the struggle that emancipated their sister colonies on the other side of the continent to them had no suggestiveness.
      2. (also reflexive) Often followed by from: chiefly with reference to slavery in the United States, and in Central and South America: to set free (oneself or someone) from imprisonment, or from serfdom or slavery.
        Synonyms: (obsolete) disenslave, enfranchise, manumit, unenslave
        to pass a law emancipating slaves
      3. (chiefly law) To release (a minor) from the legal authority and custody which a parent or guardian has over them; also (Ancient Rome, historical), to release (a child) from the legal authority of the paterfamilias.
        The child was emancipated from her parents
        • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Nutrition, and Procreation of a Common-wealth”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 131:
          The Procreation, or Children of a Common-vvealth, are thoſe vve call Plantations, or Colonies; […] And vvhen a Colony is ſetled, they are either a Common-vvealth of themſelves, diſcharged of their ſubjection to their Soveraign that ſent them, (as hath been done by many Common-vvealths of antient time,) in vvhich caſe the Common-vvealth from vvhich they vvent, vvas called their Metropolis, or Mother, and requires no more of them, then Fathers require of the Children, vvhom they emancipate, and make free from their domeſtique government, vvhich is Honour, and Friendſhip; or elſe they remain united to their Metropolis, as vvere the Colonies of the people of Rome; and then they are no Common-vvealths themſelves, but Provinces, and parts of the Common-vvealth that ſent them.
        • 1886, James Muirhead, “Institutions of the Private Law”, in Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome, Edinburgh: A[dam] and C[harles] Black, →OCLC, section 9 (The Family Organisation), page 25:
          [I]f his [the paterfamilias'] wife had not passed in manum—and that was common enough even during the republic and universal in the later empire—she did not become a member of his family; she remained a member of the family in which she was born, or, if its head was deceased, or she had been emancipated, was the sole member of a family of her own. Both sons and daughters on emancipation ceased to be of the family of the paterfamilias who had emancipated them.
        • 1981, Paula Downey [et al.], “Removing the Disabilities of Minority: About Emancipation, Partial or Complete”, in The Legal Status of Adolescents 1980, Washington, D.C.: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, →OCLC, page 31:
          Enlistment for active duty with a branch of the armed forces emancipates a minor. In many jurisdictions this emancipation only lasts during the period of active service.
        • 2015, Drew Barrymore, “My Beautiful Laundrette”, in Wildflower, New York, N.Y.: Dutton, →ISBN, page 31:
          When I was fourteen, I was emancipated by the courts. It's no secret that I had to part ways from my mother because we had driven our relationship into the ground.
    3. (also reflexive, figurative) Often followed by from: to free (oneself or someone, or something) from some constraint or controlling influence (especially when evil or undue); also, to free (oneself or someone) from mental oppression.
      Education can emancipate us from error or prejudices.
      • 1699, John Evelyn, “Dressing”, in Acetaria. A Discourse of Sallets. […], London: […] B[enjamin] Tooke […], →OCLC, page 152:
        The vvhole Epiſtle deſerves the Reading, for the excellent Advice he gives on this and other Subjects; and hovv from many troubleſome and ſlaviſh Impertinencies, grovvn into Habit and Cuſtom (old as he vvas) he had Emancipated and freed himſelf: […]
      • 1710, George Berkeley, “Introduction”, in A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. […], Dublin: […] Aaron Rhames, for Jeremy [i.e., Jeremiah] Pepyat, […], →OCLC, § 14, page 20:
        And it is on all Hands agreed that there is need of great Toil and Labour of the Mind, to Emancipate our Thoughts from particular Objects, and raiſe them to thoſe Sublime Speculations that are converſant about abſtract Ideas.
      • 1850, [Charles Kingsley], “Sandy Mackaye”, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 54:
        At all events, from that day I was emancipated from modern Puritanism.
      • 1851, George MacDonnell, “Twenty-ninth Day, Morning Prayer, Wednesday”, in A Book of Devotions and Sermons, Designed Chiefly for the Use of Mariners, Montreal, Que.: Armour & Ramsay;  […], →OCLC, page 125:
        Thou [God] emancipatest and restorest the poor sinner by the finished work of Thy Beloved Son [Jesus].
      • 1879, Adolphus William Ward, “Chaucer’s Times”, in Chaucer (English Men of Letters), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 29:
        Wyclif [John Wycliffe], […] sought to emancipate the human conscience from reliance upon any earthly authority intermediate between the soul and its Maker, […]
      • [1888], Sidney R[obert] Thompson, “Robert Southey [Introduction]”, in Robert Southey, edited by Sidney R. Thompson and William Sharp, Selected Poems of Robert Southey. […] (The Canterbury Poets), London; New York, N.Y.: Walter Scott, […], →OCLC, page xxii:
        Duly he calls at the chancellor's door; sometimes he is admitted to immediate audience; sometimes kicketh his heels in the ante-chamber (once he kicked them for cold, but now there is a fire); sometimes a gracious message emancipateth him for the day.
      • 1898, Friedrich Nietzsche, “In the Happy Isles”, in Thomas Common, transl., Thus Spake Zarathustra, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, published [1960?], →OCLC, page 99:
        All feeling suffereth in me, and is in prison: but my willing ever cometh to me as mine emancipator and comforter. Willing emancipateth: that is the true doctrine of will and emancipation—so teacheth you Zarathustra.
      • 1978, “Rāg Prabhāti”, in Gopal Singh, transl., Sri Guru Granth Sahib: English Version, revised edition, volume IV, New Delhi; Mumbai, Maharashtra: Allied Publishers, published 2005, →ISBN, page 1273:
        O God, of Thyself, Thou Blessed Thy Devotees with Thy Devotion, / And, Thou Emancipatest Thy Seekers, snapping all their Bonds.
      • 1980 January–April (date recorded), Bob Marley, “Redemption Song”, in Uprising, performed by Bob Marley and the Wailers, London: Island Records, published 10 June 1980, →OCLC:
        Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, / None but ourselves can free our minds
    5. (obsolete) To place (something) under one's control; specifically (chiefly reflexive), to cause (oneself or someone) to become the slave of another person; to enslave; also, to subjugate (oneself or someone).
      • 1626, William Prynne, “An Answer to the Arguments which may be Objected”, in The Perpetuitie of a Regenerate Mans Estate. […], London: […] William Iones […], →OCLC, page 321:
        He that vvill ſinne vnto death, or ſinne ſo farre as to put himſelfe into the ſtate of damnation; muſt ſinne ſo farre, as vtterly to ſeparate, and cut off himſelfe from Chriſt, vtterly to extirpate all the ſeeds and habits of true and ſauing grace vvhich are vvithin him, and vvholly to emancipate and inthrall himſelfe to the ſeruice of ſinne and Sathan: […]
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To become free from the oppression or restraint of another.

Conjugation

Conjugation of emancipate
infinitive (to) emancipate
present tense past tense
1st-person singular emancipate emancipated
2nd-person singular emancipate, emancipatest† emancipated, emancipatedst†
3rd-person singular emancipates, emancipateth† emancipated
plural emancipate
subjunctive emancipate emancipated
imperative emancipate —
participles emancipating emancipated

† Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

emancipate (comparative more emancipate, superlative most emancipate)

  1. (obsolete except poetic) Synonym of emancipated (“having been set free from someone's control, or from some constraint; at liberty, free”).

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Compare “emancipate, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “emancipate, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “emancipate, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024.

Further reading

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective

emancipate

  1. feminine plural of emancipato

Participle

emancipate f pl

  1. feminine plural of emancipato

Etymology 2

Verb

emancipate

  1. inflection of emancipare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Latin

Verb

ēmancipāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of ēmancipō

Spanish

Verb

emancipate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of emancipar combined with te
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