MAIN (from the Aryan root which appears in " may " and " might," and Lat. magnus, great)

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 431 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LUP-MAL

MAIN (from the Aryan root which appears in " may " and " might," and Lat. magnus, great) , a word meaning properly power or strength, especially

physical

PHYSICAL

. This use chiefly survives in the expression " with might and main." The word is more common as a substantival elliptical use of the adjective, which usually has the sense of

principal

PRINCIPAL

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

in size, strength, importance, &c. Thus " the main," the high open sea, is for " main sea," cf. " mainland," the

principal

PRINCIPAL

part of a territory excluding islands and sometimes far-projecting peninsulas. The expression " the Spanish main " properly meant that part of the main land of the N.E.

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

America stretching from the Orinoco to the

Isthmus

ISTHMUS (Gr.io0pbs, neck)

of Panama, and the former Spanish possessions in Central America bordering on the Caribbean Sea, but it is often loosely used, especially in connexion with the buccaneers, of the Caribbean Sea itself. The

term

TERM

" main " is also thus used of a principal pipe or cable for conducting gas, water, electricity, &c. The elliptical use does not appear, however, in such expressions as main road, line, stream. Another use of the word " main " has a somewhat obscure history. It appears as a

term

TERM

in the game of hazard, and also in cock-fighting. In the last it is used for a match, and for'the cocks engaged in a match. In hazard it is the number called by the " caster " before the dice are thrown; this may be any number from five to nine inclusive. The usual derivation is from the French main, a hand, but according to the New English Dictionary there is no evidence for this, and the more probable explanation is that it is an adaptation of " main " meaning principal or

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

. From this use of the word in hazard the expression " main chance " is derived. " Main," a shortened form of domain or demesne, only now survives in

Scotland

, usually in the plural " mains " for a

home

farm.

End of Article: MAIN (from the Aryan root which appears in " may " and " might," and Lat. magnus, great)

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