emancipate

Meaning

Verb

1. (transitive) To set free (a person or group) from the oppression or restraint of another; to liberate.
2. (transitive) To set free (a person or group) from the oppression or restraint of another; to liberate.
3. (also, reflexive, transitive) To set free (a person or group) from the oppression or restraint of another; to liberate.
4. (transitive) To set free (a person or group) from the oppression or restraint of another; to liberate.
5. (also, figuratively, reflexive, transitive) 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.
6. (obsolete, transitive) 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).
7. (intransitive, obsolete) To become free from the oppression or restraint of another.

Adj

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

Synonyms

liberate

release

set free

free

🆓

manumit

unleash

extricate

unchain

let go

let escape

rescue

let loose

allow to go

allow to escape

exempt

enfranchise

set at liberty

discharge

loose

unfasten

redeem

unloose

relieve

deliver

spell

stamp

make free

unbind

unblock

uncork

unfetter

unfreeze

unhitch

unlock

🔓

untie

uplift

whitewash

let go of

untether

liberate relieve exempt

absolve

let feel at ease

acquit

affranchise

alleviate

assoil

clear

decontrol

disencumber

disengage

Translations

émanciper

emancipar

emancipare

emanzipieren

emancipar

affranchir

🆓

emancipar

emanciperen

befreien

🆓

liberare

🆓

libérer

απελευθερώνω

liberar

أعتق

🆓

affrancare

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɪˈmænsɪpeɪt/

Etymology

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)); 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.