demesne
English
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
Noun
demesne (plural demesnes)
- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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;
- Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
- 1816, John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, lines 5-6
Translations
a lord's chief manor place
References
- “demesne”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
Old French
Adjective
demesne m (oblique and nominative feminine singular demesne)
- Alternative form of demaine
Noun
demesne oblique singular, m (oblique plural demesnes, nominative singular demesnes, nominative plural demesne)
- Alternative form of demaine
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪn
- Rhymes:English/iːn
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Feudalism
- Old French lemmas
- Old French adjectives
- Old French nouns
- Old French masculine nouns