Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DE-MAIN', n. [Norm. demainer. This might be from L. dominium, Fr. domaine. But in old law books it is written demesne, as if derived from meisan, maison, house. In Norman, it is written also demaygne, demeigne, as well as demeine.]

1. A manor-house and the land adjacent or near, which a lord keeps in his own hands or immediate occupation, for the use of his family, as distinguished from his tenemental lands, distributed among his tenants, called book-land, or charter-land, and folk-land, or estates held in villenage, from which sprung copyhold estates. – Blackstone.
2. Estate in lands. – Shak.