emancipate [E17th] The word emancipate is from Latin emancipare ‘transfer as property’, from e- (a variant of ex-) ‘out’ and mancipium ‘slave’. In Roman law it was the setting free of a child or wife from the power of the pater familias, the head of the household, a sense found in the 20th century in the campaigns for the emancipation of women. Enfranchise [LME] has a similar history coming from French enfranchir from franc ‘free’, also the source of frank [ME]. In early medieval France only the conquering Franks (who also gave their name to the country) were fully free. Franchise [ME], originally legal immunity, comes from the same source.