manumissive

Syllables: man·u·miss·iveUK/ˌmænjʊˈmɪsɪv//ˌmænjəˈmɪsɪv/

manumissive adjective: of or relating to manumission (“release from slavery or other legally sanctioned servitude”).

Adjective

manumissive (comparative more manumissive, superlative most manumissive)

(rare) Of or relating to manumission (“release from slavery or other legally sanctioned servitude”).
- No Manumiſſive Corbon yet vvas knovvn / To Superſedeas a Son, for he / Still gave, yet ne'r eſteem'd himſelf as free; […]1652, Daniel Cudmore, The History of Ioseph. A Poem, London: […] T. Warren […], →OCLC, page 67
- If a right was to be acquired on the expiration of a certain period, it was acquired as soon as the last day of the period began; for instance, if the period was a year, the right was acquired immediately after midnight of the 364th day. This applied to acquisition of ownership by usucapion,[…]...1871, Edward Poste, “De manu”, in Gaius, translated by Edward Poste, Gaii Institutionum iuris civilis commentarii quatuor: Or Elements of Roman Law […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC...
(figuratively, rare) Freeing, liberating.
- He wants employment. Give him plenty to do, and it resolves itself into a simple equation, leaving him no time for the manumissive luxury we have alluded to.1846 April, “Irish Rivers.—No. III. Glintings of the Shannon. Chapter V.”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XXVII, number CLX, Dublin: James MᶜGlashan, […]...
- Elinor [Glyn] herself would have been both surprised and indignant […] if she could have seen that Three Weeks appealed to the same renascent and manumissive instinct that had also welcomed, for example, [Sigmund] Freud. She and Freud, of course, were poles apart in ideals, in methods, in...1955 July, Anthony Glyn, chapter 33, in Elinor Glyn: A Biography, London: Hutchinson & Co., published August 1955, →OCLC, book 2 (The Best-selling Novelist 1892–1907), page 131

Noun

manumissive (plural manumissives)

(rare) A document having the effect of releasing someone from slavery or other legally sanctioned servitude.
- The date of the above (hitherto unpublished) manumissive, granted by the Lieutenant-General, suggests at first sight that Mr. Hunt may have formed part of the garrison of Winchester Castle, which surrendered on the 6th of October, the very day before the signing of Oliver [Cromwell]'s pass; […]1888 November, James Wayles, “The Wiltshire Compounders”, in The Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Magazine, volume XXIV, number LXX, Devizes, Wiltshire: […] [F]or the [Wiltshire...
- Tangible evidence of the existence of well-organized, though Hellenized, Jewish communities in southeastern Europe and in the Bosporus and coastal regions of the Black Sea as early as the 1st cent. C.E. is offered in the form of manumissives of Jewish slaves[…].1941, Morris Lehrer, “EUROPE”, in Isaac Landman, editor, The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia […], volume 4, New York, N.Y.: The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., →OCLC, page 195, column 2

Examples of manumissive in a sentence

This applied to acquisition of ownership by usucapion,[…], acquisition of testamentary capacity by attaining to years of puberty,[…], acquisition of manumissive capacity, […]1871, Edward Poste, “De manu”, in Gaius, translated by Edward Poste, Gaii Institutionum iuris civilis commentarii quatuor: Or Elements of...
That leading light, whose value-laden vision guided the nation's manumissive march with selfless steps, was frail, firm Jaya Prakash Narain.1990, V[aidyanathapuram] R[ama Iyer] Krishna Iyer, “Humans without Rights”, in Human Rights and Inhuman Wrongs, New Delhi: B. R. Paperback...

Forms of manumissive

Adjective
comparative	more manumissive
superlative	most manumissive
Noun
plural	manumissives

Origin of manumissive

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 that rhyme with manumissive

Questions about manumissive

What does manumissive mean?: Manumissive means of or relating to manumission (“release from slavery or other legally sanctioned servitude”).
How do you use manumissive in a sentence?: This applied to acquisition of ownership by usucapion,[…], acquisition of testamentary capacity by attaining to years of puberty,[…], acquisition of manumissive capacity, […]
What part of speech is manumissive?: Manumissive can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce manumissive?: Manumissive is pronounced /ˌmænjʊˈmɪsɪv/ (UK).

Words near manumissive in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: manumissive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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