demesne
May. 23rd, 2025 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodworddemesne (dih-MAYN, dih-MEEN) - n., manorial land retained by the feudal lord and not rented out to tenants; (law) possession of land as one's own; land belonging to and adjoining a manor house, estate; a realm, a domain.
This is a synonym of many senses of of domain, and indeed is a doublet of it -- both are from Old French demeine/demaine/demeigne/domaine, main sense being power, domain was taken directly from that into Middle English, while demesne, originally spelled demayne, passed through Anglo-Norman first. As to why this word switched from using -y- to -s- to indicate the vowel before it is long, that's a tricky bit, but there seems to have been influence from mesne (pronounced MEEN) meaning intermediate in a feudal context. As for that Old French domaine, it's a noun use of an adjective descended from Latin dominicus, belonging to a lord or master, from dominus, master/proprietor/owner, from domus, home/house, from PIE *dṓm, house/home, from the root *dem-, to build.
---L.
This is a synonym of many senses of of domain, and indeed is a doublet of it -- both are from Old French demeine/demaine/demeigne/domaine, main sense being power, domain was taken directly from that into Middle English, while demesne, originally spelled demayne, passed through Anglo-Norman first. As to why this word switched from using -y- to -s- to indicate the vowel before it is long, that's a tricky bit, but there seems to have been influence from mesne (pronounced MEEN) meaning intermediate in a feudal context. As for that Old French domaine, it's a noun use of an adjective descended from Latin dominicus, belonging to a lord or master, from dominus, master/proprietor/owner, from domus, home/house, from PIE *dṓm, house/home, from the root *dem-, to build.
---L.
