different between main vs necessary

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: m?n, IPA^(key): /me?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n
• Homophones: mane, Maine

Etymology 1

From Middle English mayn, main, maine, mæin, meyn, from main (noun) (see further at etymology 2); compare Old English mægen- (“strong, main, principal”) (used in combination) and Old Norse megn, megenn (“strong, main”). The word is cognate with Old High German meg?n (“strong, mighty”) (modern German Möge, Vermögen (“power, wealth”)), and also akin to Old English magan (“to be able to”). See also may.

Adjective

main (not comparable)

1. Of chief or leading importance; prime, principal. [from 15th c.]
   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of being Religious

     Religion direct us rather to ?ecure inward peace than outward ea?e, to be more careful to avoid everla?ting and intolerable torment than ?hort and light afflictions which are but for a moment; […] In a word, our main intere?t is to be as happy as we can, and as long as is po??ible; and if we be ca?t into ?uch circum?tances, that we mu?t be either in part and for a time or el?e wholly and always mi?erable, the be?t wi?dom is to chu?e the greate?t and mo?t la?ting happiness, but the lea?t and ?horte?t mi?ery.
2. Chief, most important, or principal in extent, size, or strength; consisting of the largest part.

   Synonym: largest
3. (archaic, of force, strength, etc.) Full, sheer, undivided. [from 16th c.]
4. (dialectal) Big; angry.
5. (nautical) Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
6. (obsolete) Great in size or degree; important, powerful, strong, vast.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

main (comparative more main, superlative most main)

1. (Britain, dialectal) Exceedingly, extremely, greatly, mightily, very, very much.

Verb

main (third-person singular simple present mains, present participle maining, simple past and past participle mained)

1. (transitive) Short for mainline (“to inject (a drug) directly into a vein”).
2. (transitive, gaming) To mainly play a specific character, or side, during a game.
3. (obsolete) To convert (a road) into a main or primary road.

Etymology 2

From Middle English mayn, main, maine, mæine, mæ?en, from Old English mæ?en (“strength”), from Proto-Germanic *magin? (“strength, power, might”), *maginaz (“strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *meg?- (“be able”). The word is cognate with Old High German magen, megin, Old Norse magn, megn, megin, Old Saxon megin. More recent senses are derived from the adjective.

Noun

main (plural mains)

1. That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the bulk, the greater part, gross.
   1. (video games) The primary character that one plays in a video game in which one can play more than one character.

      Antonym: alt

2. A large cable or pipe providing utility service to an area or a building, such as a water main or electric main. [from 17th c.]
3. (informal) Short for main course (“the principal dish of a meal”).

4. (now poetic) The high seas. [from 16th c.]
5. (now archaic, US dialectal) The mainland. [from 16th c.]
6. (nautical) Short for mainsail. [from 17th c.]
7. (obsolete, except in might and main) Force, power, strength, violent effort. [from 9th c.]

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain; probably from the adjective main. Evidence is lacking for a derivation from French main (“hand”).

Noun

main (plural mains)

1. (obsolete, gaming) A hand or match in a game of dice.
2. (obsolete, gaming) The largest throw in a match at dice; in the game of hazard, a number from one to nine called out by a person before the dice are thrown.
3. (obsolete, gaming) A stake played for at dice.
4. (obsolete, gaming, sports) A sporting contest or match, especially a cockfighting match.
5. A banker's shovel for coins.

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain, possibly from French main (“hand”).

Noun

main (plural mains)

1. (obsolete, rare) A basket for gathering grapes.

References

Further reading

• main (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Main (power) in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Amin, Iman, Mani, Mian, Mina, NAMI, NIMA, Naim, amin, iman, mani, mina

Cimbrian

Alternative forms

• moi (Luserna)

Etymology

From Middle High German m?n, form Old High German m?n, from Proto-West Germanic *m?n, from Proto-Germanic *m?naz (“my, mine”). Cognate with German mein, English mine.

Determiner

main (plural main, bon/dar maindarn) (Sette Comuni)

1. (attributive) my

2. (predicative) mine

Usage notes

The following rules apply to all Sette Comuni Cimbrian possessive determiners:

• They are inflected by number and gender in only exclamations (i.e. vocative case).
• Before nouns, they are inflected for number only and follow the corresponding definite article (a form of dar).
  • The plural ending is -en, or -? when the pronoun itself ends in -n.
• Predicatively, they are uninflected and the definite article is not used.
• Following bon (“of”) or dar (the only surviving trace of a genitive definite article; used for all numbers and genders) they end in -darn.

Inflection

See also

References

• “main” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin m?ne, from m?. Compare Romanian mine.

Pronoun

main

1. (first-person singular pronoun, oblique case) me

Related terms

• me
• ju

Finnish

Noun

main

1. Instructive plural form of maa.

See also

• jossain näillä main

Anagrams

• mani, mina, nami

French

Etymology

From Middle French main, Old French main, mein, man, from Latin manus (“hand”), from Proto-Italic *manus, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh?- (“to beckon”). Compare Spanish mano.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??/
• Homophones: mains, maint, maints
• Hyphenation: main

Noun

main f (plural mains)

1. hand
2. (soccer) handball
3. (poker) hand

Synonyms

• louche
• mimine
• paluche
• pince

Meronyms

• doigt
• dos
• paume
• poignet
• pouce

Holonyms

• bras

Derived terms

Related terms

• manche
• manicle
• manier
• manipuler
• manivelle
• manuel

Descendants

• ? German: Lamäng

Further reading

• “main” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• mina

Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay main

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /main/
• Hyphenation: main

Verb

main (bermain)

1. to play

Derived terms

Further reading

• “main” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Kaiep

Noun

main

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)
• Stephen Adolphe Wurm, New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study (1976)

Malay

Etymology

A phonemical reduction from Pre-Malayic *q-um-ayam, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qayam.

Pronunciation

• (Johor-Selangor) IPA^(key): /maen/
• (Riau-Lingga) IPA^(key): /ma?n/
• Rhymes: -aen, -en

Verb

main (Jawi spelling ?????, used in the form bermain)

1. to play

Derived terms

Descendants

• Indonesian: main

References

• "main" in Kamus Dewan, Fourth Edition, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, ?ISBN, 2005.
• “main” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Middle English

Noun

main

1. Alternative form of mayn

Adjective

main

1. Alternative form of mayn

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French main, mein, man, from Latin manus.

Noun

main f (plural mains)

1. (anatomy) hand

Descendants

• French: main

Norman

Alternative forms

• man (continental Normandy)
• môin (Guernsey)

Etymology

From Old French main, mein, man, from Latin manus (“hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *man-.

Pronunciation

Noun

main f (plural mains)

1. (Jersey, anatomy) hand

Derived terms

• brînge à main f (“brush”)
• marté à deux mains m (“sledgehammer”)

Related terms

• dé (“finger”)

Northern Sami

Pronoun

main

1. locative plural of mii

Old French

Alternative forms

• mein, man

Etymology

From Latin manus.

Noun

main f (oblique plural mainz, nominative singular main, nominative plural mainz)

1. (anatomy) hand

Descendants

• Middle French: main
  • French: main
• Norman: main
• Walloon: mwin

Welsh

Etymology

Cognate with Breton moan, Cornish moon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mai?n/

Adjective

main (feminine singular main, plural meinion, equative meined, comparative meinach, superlative meinaf)

1. slender, thin

   Synonym: tenau

2. fine

   Synonym: mân

Mutation

English

Etymology

From Middle English necessarye, from Old French necessaire, from Latin necess?rius (“unavoidable, inevitable, required”), variant of necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”), probably from ne or non cessum, from the perfect passive participle of c?d? (“yield; avoid, withdraw”); see cede.

Older use as a noun in reference to an outhouse or lavatory under the influence of English and Latin necess?rium, a medieval term for the place for monks' "unavoidable" business, usually located behind or attached to monastic dormitories.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?n?s??s??i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?s?s??/

• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?n?s??i/

Adjective

necessary (comparative necessarier or more necessary, superlative necessariest or most necessary)

1. Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:requisite

   Antonym: unnecessary

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare & al., The Life of Tymon of Athens, Act III, Scene vi, ll. 1258-60:

     1.Sen. ...The faults Bloody:
     'Tis necessary he should dye:
     Nothing imboldens sinne so much, as Mercy.

2. Unavoidable, inevitable.

   Synonyms: inevitable, natural

   Antonyms: evitable, incidental, impossible

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar, Act II, Scene ii, ll. 1020-25:

     Cæs. Cowards dye many times before their deaths,
     The valiant neuer taste of death but once:
     Of all the Wonders that I yet haue heard,
     It seemes to me most strange that men should feare,
     Seeing that death, a necessary end
     Will come, when it will come.

3. (obsolete) Determined, involuntary: acting from compulsion rather than free will.
   • 1871, Richard Holt Hutton, Essays, Vol. I, p. 53:

     But that a necessary being should give birth to a being with any amount, however limited, of moral freedom, is infinitely less conceivable than that parents of the insect or fish type should give birth to a perfect mammal.

Derived terms

• necessarily
• necessary condition

Related terms

Translations

Noun

necessary (plural necessaries)

1. (Britain, archaic euphemistic, usually with the definite article) A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:bathroom

Related terms

• necessary house; necessary place, necessary stool, necessary vault (obsolete)

References

• necessary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• necessary in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.