amain

English

WOTD – 19 July 2021

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əˈmeɪn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn

Etymology 1

From a- (prefix with the sense ‘at; in; on; with’, used to show a state, condition, or manner) +‎ main (“force, power, strength”). Main is derived from Middle English mayn (“strength”), from Old English mæġen (“strength”), from Proto-Germanic *maginą (“might, power, strength”), *maginaz (“strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“to be able”).

Adverb

amain (comparative more amain, superlative most amain)

1. (archaic, literary) With all of one's might; mightily; forcefully, violently. [from 16th c.]
   • 1567, Ovid, “The Fourteenth Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 176, recto:

     And in beholding how he [the cyclops Polyphemus] fed and belked vp againe / His bloody vittels at his mouth, and vttred out amayne / The clottred gobbets mixt with wyne, I [Odysseus] thus ſurmyſde: like lot / Hangs ouer my head now, and I muſt alſo go to pot.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 27, page 430:

     So likewiſe turnde the Prince vpon the Knight, / And layd at him amaine with all his will and might.

   • 1611, Thomas Coryate [i.e., Thomas Coryat], “My Obseruations of the Most Glorious, Peerelesse, and Mayden Citie of Venice: […]”, in Coryats Crudities Hastily Gobled Vp in Five Moneths Trauells […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby for the author], →OCLC:

     For they both ſay and beleeue that this picture hath ſo great vertue, as alſo that of Padua, whereof I haue before ſpoken, that whenſoeuer it is carried abroad in a ſolemne proceſſion in the time of a great drougth, it will cauſe raine to deſcend from heauen either before it is brought backe into the Church, or very ſhortly after. […] I cannot be induced to attribute ſo much to the vertue of a picture, as the Venetians do, except I had ſeene ſome notable miracle wrought by the ſame. For it brought no drops at all with it: onely about two dayes after it rained (I muſt needes confeſſe) amaine. But I hope they are not ſo ſuperſtitious to aſcribe that to the vertue of the picture.

   • 1670, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC, page 75:

     They on the Hill, which were not yet come to blows, perceaving the fewneſs of thir Enemies, came down amain; […]

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, lines 637–638, pages 42–43:

     Under his ſpecial eie / Abſtemious I [Samson] grew up and thriv'd amain; / He led me on to mightieſt deeds / Above the nerve of mortal arm / Againſt the uncircumciſ'd, our enemies.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC:

     It [this book] ſhews too, who ſets out for life amain, / As if the laſting Crown they would attain: / Here alſo you may ſee the reaſon why / They looſe their labour, and like Fools do die.

   • 1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Christabel. Part I.”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 8:

     The palfrey was as fleet as wind, / And they rode furiously behind. / They spurr'd amain, their steeds were white; / And once we cross'd the shade of night.

   • 1799–1805 (dates written), William Wordsworth, “Book I. Introduction.—Childhood and School-time.”, in The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind; an Autobiographical Poem, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, →OCLC, pages 16–17:

     Oh! when I have hung / Above the raven's nest, by knots of grass / And half-inch fissures in the slippery rock / But ill sustained, and almost (so it seemed) / Suspended by the blast which blew amain, / Shouldering the naked crag, oh at that time, / While on the perilous ridge I hung alone, / With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind / Blow through my ears!

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Albatross”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 263:

     But as the strange captain, leaning over the pallid bulwarks, was in the act of putting his trumpet to his mouth, it somehow fell from his hand into the sea; and the wind now rising amain, he in vain strove to make himself heard without it.

   • 1863, Jean Ingelow, “The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire. (1571.)”, in Poems, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, →OCLC, page 167:

     And rearing Lindis [a river] backward pressed / Shook all her trembling bankes amaine; / Then madly at the eygre's breast / Flung uppe her weltring walls again.

     Archaic spelling has been intentionally used.

2. (archaic) At full speed; also, in great haste. [from 16th c.]
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Scotlande, […]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 189, column 1:

     At length the Danes beeing aſſayled on eche ſide, both a front before, and on their backes behinde, oppreſſed as it were wyth multitude, they threwe downe theyr weapons and fled amain.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 14, column 2:

     [T]he Queene o'th Skie [i.e., Juno], / Whoſe watry Arch, and meſſenger, am I. / Bids thee leaue theſe, & with her ſoueraigne grace, / Here on this graſſe-plot, in this very place / To come, and ſport: here [i.e., her] Peacocks flye amaine: / Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertaine.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC, page 44:

     Now when he was got up to the top of the Hill, there came two Men running againſt him amain; the name of the one was Timorous, and of the other Miſtruſt. To whom Chriſtian ſaid, Sirs, what's the matter you run the wrong way?

   • 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Chimes”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, stanza VII, lines 5–6, page 314:

     The heavy rain it hurries amain / And heaven and the hurricane.

3. (Britain, dialectal) Out of control.
   • 1820s (date written), Anthony Errington, “Saving Men on the Waggonway”, in P. E. H. Hair, editor, Coals on Rails: Or The Reason of My Wrighting: The Autobiography of Anthony Errington, a Tyneside Colliery Waggon and Waggonway Wright, from His Birth in 1778 to around 1825 (Liverpool Historical Studies; no. 3), Liverpool: […] [F]or the Department of History, University of Liverpool [by] Liverpool University Press, published 1988, →ISBN, page 38:

     The waggonway lay near the Windmill Hills and went down the north side of the hills to the Rivir Tine, and at the Coal steath [= staithe] Mathew Gray lived. I was about hauf way down the bank when thur was two Waggons Coming after me Amain [= broken loose and running away].

4. (obsolete) Exceedingly; overmuch.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, lines 429–431, pages 50–51:

     Riches are mine, Fortune is in my hand; / They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain, / While Virtue, Valour, Wiſdom ſit in want.

   • 1819, John Keats, “Lamia”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, part II, page 36:

     The herd approach'd; each guest, with busy brain, / Arriving at the portal, gaz'd amain, / And enter'd marveling: […]

Alternative forms

• amaine (obsolete)

Related terms

• main
• mainly (“(obsolete) forcefully, vigorously”)
• might and main

Translations

with all of one’s might — See also translations at mightily,‎ forcefully

• Russian: си́льно (ru) (sílʹno), и́зо всех сил (ízo vsex sil)

at full speed

• Russian: бы́стро (ru) (býstro), сломя голову (slomja golovu), на полной скорости (na polnoj skorosti)

out of control — see out of control

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish amainar (“to reef a sail (take in part of a sail to adapt its size to the force of the wind); to abate, die down, subside; to ease off, let up; of a person: to calm down, control one’s anger”); further etymology uncertain, probably from a regional Italian (Naples) word (compare Italian ammainare (“to lower or reef (a flag, sail, etc.)”)), from Vulgar Latin *invagīnare (“to sheathe (a sword); to put away, stow”), from Latin in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + vāgīna (“scabbard, sheath; covering, holder; vagina”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wag- (“cover; sheath”)).

Verb

amain (third-person singular simple present amains, present participle amaining, simple past and past participle amained) (obsolete)

1. (transitive)
   1. (nautical) To lower (the sail of a ship, particularly the topsail).
   2. (figuratively) To decrease or reduce (something).
2. (intransitive, nautical) To lower the topsail in token of surrender; to yield.

Further reading

• Joseph Wright, editor (1898), “AMAIN, adv.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume I (A–C), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 47, column 2.

Anagrams

• -mania, Amina, Maina, Mania, amnia, anima, mania

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Norse almanna (“for everyone”).

Adjective

amain m

1. (Jersey) of easy use

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: a‧ma‧in
• IPA^(key): /ʔamaˈʔin/, [ʔɐ.mɐˈʔin]

Noun

amaín

1. uncle

   Synonyms: tito, tiyo, tiyong, tiyuhin, amba, (slang) tsong

2. stepfather

   Synonyms: amang-panguman, padrastro, tiyuhin, tiyo, tiyong

Coordinate terms

• inain

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English amen, from Latin āmēn.

Interjection

amain

1. amen

References

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 22