Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 22, 2007
manumit \man-yuh-MIT\, transitive verb:
To free from slavery or servitude.
The prime reason, I suspect, will be that we don't need any liberator to manumit our "corporate slaves" because we've never had any.
-- Victor S. Navasky, "Time is money", The Nation, July 17, 1989
Mobilization difficulties led the government to manumit hundreds of slaves and scores of convicts to fight at the front.
-- Peter M. Beattie, "Conscription versus penal servitude",
Journal of Social History, June 22, 1999
Possessed of more than one hundred slaves, Tucker resisted the appeals of relatives to manumit in his will even favored household servants.
-- Christopher Doyle, "Judge St. George Tucker and the case of Tom v. Roberts", Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Autumn 1998
It even seemed possible that they could improve the conditions of slaves and persuade ever more planters to manumit their bondsmen.
-- Larry Gragg, "A heavenly visitation", History Today, February 1, 2002
Manumit comes from Latin manumittere, "to emancipate a slave," from manu mittere, "to release from control," from manus, "hand" (hence "power of control") + mittere, "to let go; to send." The noun form is manumission.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for manumit
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