Today’s word of the day, thanks to Dictionary.com, is stipulate. According to the dictionary, to stipulate is “to require as an essential condition in making an agreement” (https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/stipulate-2024-02-04/). Merriam-Webster has more than just the one and separates the definitions between stipulate as an intransitive verb versus a transitive verb. As an intransitive verb, it means “to make an agreement or covenant to do or forbear something” or “to demand an express term in an agreement—used with for” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stipulate). As a transitive verb, it means “to specify as a condition or requirement (as of an agreement or offer)” or “to give a guarantee of.”

Merriam-Webster goes on to give an etymology of the word: “It derives from stipulatus, the past participle of stipulari, a verb meaning ‘to demand a guarantee (from a prospective debtor).’ Stipulate has been a part of the English language since the 17th century. In Roman law, oral contracts were deemed valid only if they followed a proper question-and-answer format; stipulate was sometimes used specifically of this same process of contract making, though it also could be used more generally for any means of making a contract or agreement. The ‘to specify as a condition or requirement’ meaning of stipulate also dates to the 17th century, and is the sense of the word most often encountered in current use.”

Etymonline is a little more precise: “1620s, ‘bargain, make a contract’ (intransitive, a sense now obsolete), a back-formation from stipulation, or else from Latin stipulatus, past participle of stipulari ‘exact (a promise), bargain for.’ The transitive sense of ‘demand as a condition of agreement’ is from 1640s. In reference to a document or agreement, ‘require or insist upon,’ by 1680s” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=stipulate).

A backformation is “a word formed by subtraction of a real or supposed affix from an already existing longer word” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/back-formation). Etymonline suggests that stipulate might be a backformation because stipulation is found in English in the 1550s (https://www.etymonline.com/word/stipulation). This entry also suggests that the “general meaning ‘that which is agreed upon’ in English is from 1802.”

That last meaning is the one that I am most familiar with, and that from courtrooms, whether live or televised. In a legal case, the parties may stipulate to facts or to testimony. When they stipulate to facts, they agree that the facts are what they are. When they stipulate to testimony, they agree that if a certain witness were to testify, they would say this (https://www.mass.gov/doc/2220-what-is-evidence-stipulations-judicial-notice/download).

On this date in 1657, according to On This Day, “Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, grants Portuguese Jew Antonio Fernandez Caravajal and other Sephardic Jews denizen status (1st known rights granted to English Jews)” (https://www.onthisday.com/today/events.php?utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter).

There were few if any Jews in Anglo-Saxon England, but after the Conquest, Jews came into the country as part of William I’s court. But in 1290, Edward I expelled the Jews amid concerns about conversions and the usual anti-Semitic tropes—that Jews kill Christian children, that Jews have secret blood ceremonies, that Jews secretly control the money, etc. Some Jews certainly lived, sometimes secretly, sometimes after converting to Christianity, in England after the expulsion. They went to England to flee persecution in other European countries.

And that is also what happened during the interregnum, the period in England between the kings. A Jewish rabbi, Menasseh ben Israel, petitioned Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, to allow Jews to return to England. The Counter Reformation had targeted Jews in Roman Catholic countries, especially in Spain and Portugal. Menasseh was a well-known Hebrew scholar and had corresponded with many Christian scholars in England. He was also a printer of books, and he was known to acquire books for Christian patrons.

Eventually, Cromwell did allow Jews to settle in England, though there were quite a few restrictions. For instance, Jews were not allowed to hold political office. But his support for Jewish return was not without a great deal of hesitancy. Some people believe that Cromwell invited the Jews back into England because it was thought that the world would end in 1656, as long as they Jews were going to be converted, and the Jews could not be properly converted if they were living in Roman Catholic countries. Some believe that Cromwell and others felt genuine compassion for the Jews fleeing persecution in Catholic nations. Some believe that there was a genuine move in England and in Protestantism in generally toward religious toleration.

Any and all of these reasons, and perhaps more (perhaps there was a financial reason) could explain why Jews were readmitted to England. But the one fact to which we will stipulate is that the Jews were welcomed back to England on this day in 1657.

Today’s image is of Menassah ben Israel, a Sephardic Jew who left Portugal to settle in Amsterdam (https://cbisd.org/programs/menasseh-ben-israel-the-most-famous-jew-in-the-world/). A Sephardic Jew is one from the Iberian peninsula. The choice of these Sephardic Jews to leave Portugal or Spain was usually not voluntary.