Main

See also: main, mäin, and -main

English

Etymology 1

From Latin Moenis.

Proper noun

Main

2. A river in southern Germany, flowing from Bavaria to the Rhine.

Derived terms

• Frankfort-on-Main
• Frankfurt am Main
• Gemünden am Main

Translations

river in southern Germany

• Armenian: Մայն (Mayn)
• Bulgarian: Майн m (Majn)
• Catalan: Main m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 美茵河 (Měiyīn hé)

• Czech: Mohan m
• Esperanto: Majno
• French: Main (fr) m
• German: Main (de) m

  Bavarian: Moa

  East Franconian: Mee

• Greek: Μάιν m (Máin)
• Hungarian: Majna (hu)
• Italian: Meno (it) m
• Japanese: マイン川 (Main gawa)
• Korean: 마인 강 (Main gang)
• Lao: ເມນ (mēn), ແມ່ນ້ຳເມນ (mǣ nam mēn)
• Latin: Moenis m, Moenus (la) m
• Marathi: माइन f (māin)
• Polish: Men (pl) m
• Portuguese: Meno m
• Russian: Майн (ru) m (Majn)
• Slovak: Mohan m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: Mohan m

• Spanish: Meno m
• Thai: เมน (meen), แม่น้ำเมน

Etymology 2

From an Mhaing, possibly from Old Irish mang (“fawn”), which is said to be related to Proto-Celtic *makʷos (“son”); also compare Proto-Germanic *maguz.

Proper noun

Main

2. A river in Northern Ireland, flowing into Lough Neagh.

Etymology 3

• As a Scottish surname, reduced from the North Germanic name Magnus. Also from the adjective main.
• As a Scottish, English, French and Norman surname, from personal names derived from Proto-West Germanic *magan (“to be able”), similar to Mein.
• As a Scottish, English and Norman surname, from the French province of Maine. Compare Mansell.
• As a Scottish, English, and Norman surname, from the Anglo-Norman adjective maine (“great, large”), from Old French magne.
• As a Scottish, English, Norman and French surname, from the noun main (“hand”).

Proper noun

Main

2. A surname.

Etymology 4

From main.

Proper noun

Main

1. Ellipsis of Main Street, a street named "Main Street".

Derived terms

• SoMa
• South Main

Noun

Main (plural Mains)

1. Ellipsis of Main Street (“main street”), a central street of a community.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Main”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 493.

See also

• main

Anagrams

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

German

Etymology

From Latin Moenis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maɪ̯n/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Proper noun

Main m (proper noun, strong, genitive Maines or Mains)

1. a tributary of the Rhine, in southern Germany

Declension

Declension of Main [sg-only, masculine, strong]

	singular
	indef.	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Main
genitive	eines	des	Maines, Mains
dative	einem	dem	Main, Maine1
accusative	einen	den	Main

¹Now rare, see notes.

Related terms

• Frankfurt am Main
• Hochheim am Main
• Main-Kinzig-Kreis
• Main-Spessart
• Main-Tauber-Kreis
• Main-Taunus-Kreis
• Mainhattan
• Mainmetropole
• Neustadt am Main

Further reading

• “Main” in Duden online
• “Main”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[2] (in German)
• Main on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de

Portuguese

Proper noun

Main m

1. Main (a river in southern Germany)

   Synonym: Meno