amain

English

WOTD – 19 July 2021

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (UK):

  (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, pages 214–215:

     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[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 42–43, lines 637–638:

     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:

     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 (date 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, 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, page 314, lines 5–6:

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

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎^[1], London: Jonathan Cape, page 15:

     So that it was like a sweet home-coming to him to come on board his well-built ship and have her rowed amain out of Lookinghaven.

3. (British, 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[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 50–51, lines 429–431:

     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 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[eorge] P[almer] 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

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔamaˈʔin/ [ʔɐ.mɐˈʔin̪]
• Rhymes: -in
• Syllabification: a‧ma‧in

Noun

amaín (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜋᜁᜈ᜔)

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 amēn, from Old English [Term?], from Latin āmēn. Cognate with Scots amain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈmiːn/

Interjection

amain

1. amen

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) 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, published 1867, page 22