different between main vs passage

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 1

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French passage, from passer (“to pass”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pæs?d??/

Adjective

passage (not comparable)

1. Describing a bird that has left the nest, is living on its own, but is less than a year old. (commonly used in falconry)

   Passage red-tailed hawks are preferred by falconers because these younger birds have not yet developed the adult behaviors which would make them more difficult to train.

Noun

passage (plural passages)

1. A paragraph or section of text or music with particular meaning.

   passage of scripture

   She struggled to play the difficult passages.

2. Part of a path or journey.

   He made his passage through the trees carefully, mindful of the stickers.

3. An incident or episode.
   • 1961, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961: Hearings

     But there are those who do not feel that the sordid passages of life should be kept off the stage. It is a matter of opinion.

4. The official approval of a bill or act by a parliament. [from 17th c.]

   The company was one of the prime movers in lobbying for the passage of the act.

5. The advance of time.

   Synonym: passing
6. (art) The use of tight brushwork to link objects in separate spatial plains. Commonly seen in Cubist works.
7. A passageway or corridor.
8. (caving) An underground cavity, formed by water or falling rocks, which is much longer than it is wide.
9. (euphemistic) The vagina.
   • 1986, Bertrice Small, A Love for All Time,^[1] New American Library, ?ISBN, page 463:

     With a look of triumph that he was unable to keep from his dark eyes he slid into her passage with one smooth thrust, […]

   • 1987, Usha Sarup, Expert Lovemaking, Jaico Publishing House, ?ISBN, page 53:

     This way, the tip of your penis will travel up and down her passage.

   • 2009, Cat Lindler, Kiss of a Traitor, Medallion Press, ?ISBN, page 249:

     At the same moment, Aidan plunged two fingers deep into her passage and broke through her fragile barrier.

10. The act of passing; movement across or through.
    • 1886, Pacific medical journal Volume 29

      He claimed that he felt the passage of the knife through the ilio-cæcal valve, from the very considerable pain which it caused.

11. The right to pass from one place to another.
12. A fee paid for passing or for being conveyed between places.
13. Serial passage, a technique used in bacteriology and virology
14. (dice games, now historical) A gambling game for two players using three dice, in which the object is to throw a double over ten. [from 15th c.]

Derived terms

• passage maker, passagemaker
• Restronguet Passage
• rite of passage

Translations

Verb

passage (third-person singular simple present passages, present participle passaging, simple past and past participle passaged)

1. (medicine) To pass something, such as a pathogen or stem cell, through a host or medium

   He passaged the virus through a series of goats.

   After 24 hours, the culture was passaged to an agar plate.

2. (rare) To make a passage, especially by sea; to cross

   They passaged to America in 1902.

Etymology 2

From French passager, from Italian passeggiare

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pas???/

Noun

passage (plural passages)

1. (dressage) A movement in classical dressage, in which the horse performs a very collected, energetic, and elevated trot that has a longer period of suspension between each foot fall than a working trot.

Translations

Verb

passage (third-person singular simple present passages, present participle passaging, simple past and past participle passaged)

1. (intransitive, dressage) To execute a passage movement

Further reading

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

Dutch

Etymology

From passeren +? -age

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: pas?sa?ge

Noun

passage f (plural passages, diminutive passagetje n)

1. A paragraph or section of text with particular meaning. ~ of scripture.
2. a passage way in a city.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?.sa?/, /pa.sa?/
• Homophones: passagent, passages
• Rhymes: -a?

Etymology 1

From Old French, from passer +? -age.

Noun

passage m (plural passages)

1. The act of going through a place or event.
2. The time when such an act occurs.
3. (uncountable) Circulation, traffic, movement.
4. (astronomy) Moment when a star or planet occults another,or crosses a meridian.
5. A short stay.
6. A trip or travel, especially by boat.
7. The act of going from a state to another.
8. Graduation from a school year.
9. The act of making something undergo a process.
10. the act of handing something to someone.
11. An access way.
12. A laid out way allowing to go across something.
13. An alley or alleyway off-limits to cars.
14. A paragraph or section of text or music.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Portuguese: passagem

Etymology 2

Verb form of passager.

Verb

passage

1. first-person singular present indicative of passager
2. third-person singular present indicative of passager
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of passager
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of passager
5. second-person singular imperative of passager

Further reading

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

Old French

Noun

passage m (oblique plural passages, nominative singular passages, nominative plural passage)

1. passage (part of a route or journey)

Descendants

• ? English: passage
• French: passage
  • ? Portuguese: passagem
• ? Swedish: passage

Swedish

Etymology

From Old French passage, from passer (“to pass”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa?s???/, /pa?s???/

Noun

passage c

1. access, transit

   Synonym: genomgång

Declension

References

• passage in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• passage in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)