Etymology

manumissive

man·u·miss·ive
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Today it means: Of or relating to manumission (“release from slavery or other legally sanctioned servitude”). Full definition →

Middle English manumissioun ← Anglo-Norman manumission ← Middle French manumission
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*meyth₂-“to release; to send; etc.”
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)meh₂-“to beckon, signal”
  3. Latin · derived frommanūmissiō“emancipation of a slave, manumission”
  4. Middle French · derived frommanumission
  5. Anglo-Norman · derived frommanumission
  6. Middle English · inherited frommanumissioun“(uncountable) release by a feudal superior or slaveowner from servitude, freedom from servitude; (countable) an instance of this; document granting such freedom; (figurative) Jesus’s redemption of humankind”
  7. English todaymanumissive

The adjective is derived from manumission + -ive (suffix meaning ‘of the nature of; tending to’ forming adjectives). Manumission is derived from Late Middle English manumissioun (“(uncountable) release by a feudal superior or slaveowner from servitude, freedom from servitude; (countable) an instance of this; document granting such freedom; (figurative) Jesus’s redemption of humankind”), from Anglo-Norman manumission and Middle French manumission, and from their etymon Latin manūmissiō (“emancipation of a slave, manumission”), from manūmiss- (the perfect passive participle stem of manūmittō (“to emancipate, free, release”)) + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs); manūmittō is from manū (the ablative singular of manus (“hand”); further etymology uncertain, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon, signal”)) + mittō (“to discharge, release; to send”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to release; to send; etc.”)). The noun is derived from the adjective.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishmanumissioun all →

Anglo-Normanmanumission all →

Middle Frenchmanumission all →

Latinmanūmissiō all →

Proto-Indo-European*(s)meh₂- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.