assiento means A contract or convention between Spain and other powers for providing African slaves for the Spanish colonies in America, especially the contract made with Great Britain in 1713. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.
Why “assiento” is a great word
ASSIENTO — [Noun] A contract granting a monopoly on supplying African slaves to Spanish America, a commercial agreement masquerading as statecraft. From Spanish asiento ("seat, contract, agreement"), from asentar ("to adjust, to settle, to make an agreement"), from a- (ad-, "to") + sentar ("to seat"), from Latin sedēre ("to sit"). Unlike a "treaty," which binds nations in broad political accord, or a "charter," which establishes an institution's rights, an assiento was a coldly specific license to traffic. It is the scratch of a quill transforming a coastline into a shipping schedule, the ledger column where a person becomes a numbered unit, and the calculated warmth of gold changing hands in a Madrid counting-house—a seated agreement that consigned millions to a standing nightmare.
Etymology
From Spanish asiento (“seat, contract or agreement”), from asentar (“to place on a chair, to adjust, to make an agreement”), from a- + sentar (“a participial verb”), from Latin ad + *sedentare (“to cause to sit”), from sedens, sedentis.
noun
- A contract or convention between Spain and other powers for providing African slaves for the Spanish colonies in America, especially the contract made with Great Britain in 1713.