main

English

/meɪn/

adj
Definitions
  • Of chief or leading importance; prime, principal.
  • Chief, most important, or principal in extent, size, or strength; consisting of the largest part.
  • (archaic) Full, sheer, undivided.
  • (dialectal) Big; angry.
  • (nautical) Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
  • (obsolete) Great in size or degree; important, powerful, strong, vast.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English mayn inherited from Old English mægen- (principal, strong, main) derived from Old Norse megn root from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (be able, capable, help, be able to, power, sorcerer).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*megʰ-

Gloss

be able, capable, help, be able to, power, sorcerer

Concept
Semantic Field

Basic actions and technology

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Kanji

力

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms