This week’s theme
Words originating in the hand

This week’s words
glad hand
fingerpost
chirocracy
bareknuckle
manumission

This week’s comments
AWADmail 906

Next week’s theme
Misc. words

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(man-yuh-MISH-uhn)

MEANING:

noun: Release from slavery, servitude, or restraint.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin manumittere (to free), from manus (hand) + mittere (to let go). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand), which also gave us manual, manage, maintain, manicure, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, command, manure, manque, legerdemain, and mortmain. Earliest documented use: 1452.

USAGE:

“It wasn’t the menacing red lights of the bygone peripheral [Kinect] that intrigued me, nor the unremarkable games it birthed, but its mandate of manumission. When paired with an Xbox, it urged us all to leave the controller on the couch and physicalize our intentions instead.”
Ripley D Light; Totally WIRED; Wired (San Francisco, California); Oct 2019.

See more usage examples of manumission in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: