demesne

English

WOTD – 1 March 2011

Etymology

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman demeyne, demene et al., Old French demeine, demaine, demeigne, domaine (“power”) (whence French domaine (“domain”)), a noun use of an adjective, from Latin dominicus (“belonging to a lord or master”), from dominus (“master, proprietor, owner”). See dame, and compare demain, domain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈmeɪn/, /dɪˈmiːn/
• Hyphenation: de‧mesne
• Rhymes: -eɪn, -iːn
• Rhymes: -iːn

Noun

demesne (plural demesnes)

1. A lord’s chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor’s own use.
   • 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:

     As no one had ever bothered them you could get within a few yards and watch their bright, busy foraging among the leaves. Duffy, the Consul, said that they were there every day as he had resisted the servants' implorings to shoot them; he knew that as soon as the first shot had been fired, this decorative adjunct to his demesne would vanish for ever.
2. A region or area; a domain.
   • 1816, John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, lines 5-6

     Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
     That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;

Translations

a lord's chief manor place

• Bulgarian: имение (bg) n (imenie)
• German: Grundbesitz (de) m, (d. of a medieval king) Hausmacht (de) f
• Hungarian: birtok (hu)
• Irish: seilbh f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: domena (pl) f
• Russian: доме́н (ru) (domén)
• Spanish: dominio (es) m
• Swedish: domän (sv) c

References

• “demesne”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• seedmen

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Old French

Adjective

demesne m (oblique and nominative feminine singular demesne)

1. Alternative form of demaine

Noun

demesne oblique singular, m (oblique plural demesnes, nominative singular demesnes, nominative plural demesne)

1. Alternative form of demaine