manumission

From Middle English manumissioun, from Middle French manumission and its etymon Latin manūmissiō.^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): /mænjʊˈmɪʃən/

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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; […], volume (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^[1]:

     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^[2], retrieved 3 August 2015:

     Rather than encouraging his countrymen to liberate their slaves, he opposed both private manumission and public emancipation.

• emancipation, liberation

Learned borrowing from Latin manūmissiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /ma.ny.mi.sjɔ̃/

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manumission f (plural manumissions)

1. (historical) manumission

   Synonym: affranchissement

• “manumission”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.