Etymologically
Log in

emancipo

Etymology and origin of the Latin word emancipo

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [eːˈmaŋ.kɪ.poː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [eˈman̠ʲ.t͡ʃi.po][1]

Forms

ēmancipō (present infinitive ēmancipāre, perfect active ēmancipāvī, supine ēmancipātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- (“out of”) and mancipāre “to transfer by formal sale”,[2][1] and the TLL takes it as made from the participle ēmancipātus on the model of mancipātus.[3] Mancipāre comes from manceps “purchaser”, from manus “hand” and capere “to take”.[4][1] The older spelling ēmancupō is found in Plautus, Livy and inscriptions.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus, in whom a lover says mulier, tibi me emancupo: tuus sum “woman, I hand myself over to you: I am yours”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Roman law it meant to release a son or other dependant from the father's power (patria potestas), done by a fictitious sale repeated three times, and also to transfer a child into another's power, as for adoption.[2][5][6] It meant to make over property, such as half a farm to a son.[2]

Figuratively it meant to surrender or make subservient, as of a tribunate “sold and made over” in Cicero, or of a Roman soldier enslaved to a woman in Horace.[2][5] In medieval Latin it meant to set free or release in general.[7] English borrowed it in the 1620s as English emancipate, meaning “set free from control”.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of giving oneself up to a woman.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for releasing a son into adoption and for a tribunate made over to others.[2][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy reports a man fined for evading the law by emancipating his son.[2][8]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace writes of a soldier enslaved to a woman.[2][8]
  • 1620s – English borrows it as English emancipate.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (law) To release (a son) from paternal power, emancipate.[2][5]
  2. (law) To transfer (a child) into another's power.[2]
  3. To make over (property).[2]
  4. To surrender, make subservient; reflexively, to become the slave (of).[2][5]
  5. (Medieval Latin) To set free, release.[7]

Word family

  • ēmancipātiō
  • emancipator
  • mancipō
  • mancipium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Emancipo.” Etymologically, 10 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/emancipo. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on .