Well, OED says
5. a. ellipt. for MAIN SEA: The high sea, the open ocean. Now poet.
1579-80 NORTH Plutarch, C. Marius (1595) 468 The winde stoode full against them comming from the maine [F. le uent se tourna du costé de la pleine mer].
1601 R. JOHNSON Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 211 They dare not venter into the maine, but houering by the shore, timerously saile from one place to another.
1695 WOODWARD Hist. Earth I. 27 The Tides and Storms…affect only the superficial parts of the Ocean,…but never reach the greater Depths, or disturb the bottom of the Main.
1698 FROGER Voy. 65 A gentle Breeze came off from the Main [F. du large].
1731 POPE Ep. Burlington 198 Bid the broad Arch the dang’rous Flood contain, The Mole projected break the roaring Main.
1764 GOLDSM. Trav. 410 To traverse climes beyond the western main.
1847 TENNYSON Princess VII. 21 As one that climbs a peak to gaze O’er land and main. fig.
1597 R. JOHNSON Champions (1608) II. Addr., But having better hope I boldly leade thee to this mayne from this doubtfull floude where I rest.
1602 MARSTON Ant. & Mel. IV. Wks. 1856 I. 46 Launched out Into the surgy maine of government.
1839 LONGFELLOW Ps. of Life viii, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main.
And I don’t think they’re all pirates, except Tennyson, of course.
Some well-meaning Guest comes in here and gives you a post from the respected OED. Trouble is, he/she copied the wrong definition for main. There is more than one definition and more than one entry.
The correct entry is meaning number 4b, * not* the meaning given in number 5.
You see, while there was a meaning in the 1500’s for main=main ocean, the term Spanish Main doesn’t appear until the end of the 19th century.
samclem, did you even bother to read what “Cecil Adams” said in the brief article linked?
He said: 1. Original meaning equals Spanish Mainland. 2. Later usage by English pirates referenced the Carribean itself.
Now the OED definition you quote doesn’t say anything about Spanish Main until late 1800’s. By which time, of course, there were no such things as English Pirates, nor a Spanish Mainland (the land had long since become independent). So the OED definition you quote appears at best to demonstrate a retroactive application of the term “main” to the continental possessions. This is at variance with "Cecil Adams’ " explanation.
Now let’s apply some logic to this. There was a term “main” which was used to describe deep water (as opposed to coastal waters). This usage went back to periods contemporaneous with the existence of the Spanish Main (that is, the Spanish controlled Carribean). We are supposed to accept that, despite this usage for “main,” there developed some 300+ years subsequently a usage of “main” limited to the “Spanish Main” in which the “main” meant not the “main = ocean” but “main = mainland.” We are THEN supposed to accept that somehow this usage mutated again to mean the Carribean, rather than the continental coast, the only citation for which in your quote comes from the Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia of 1988?
Color me quite doubtful. Color me convinced that “Cecil Adams” didn’t know what he was talking about in his article.
I find that late a cite for Spanish Main by the OED to be very surprising. From the early 1500s, the southern shores of the Caribbean Sea were called in Spanish simply Tierra Firme, or “Mainland,” in distinction to the West Indies. The Caribbean itself was at first referred to as part of the Mar del Norte, or “North Sea,” in distinction to the Mar del Sur, “South Sea,” the Pacific (which was south of the Isthmus of Panama where it was first discovered by Balboa).
From The Early Spanish Main, by Carl Ortwin Sauer (1966):
Sauer is not clear about the time period he is referring too, but it would appear to be long prior to the 1800s. Sauer was one of the most respected historians in the field, so if Cecil got it wrong he’s in good company.
A very quick glance at accounts of the voyages of Drake (in Hakluyt’s The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, 1589) and the accounts of the pirates Esquemeling (Pirates of the Americas, 1678) and Dampier (A New Voyage Round the World, 1697) does not turn up immediate references to the Spanish Main as such. However, Dampier does refer to the coast of Panama as Tierra Firme, in accord with the Spanish usage.
That is certainly better evidence. But I’ve still got this nagging wonder as to when, actually, the idea of sailing on the Spanish Main entered the lexicon; given that the word “main” already meant deep water, one would suspect it was an easy word association. Still, at least the origin of the term would be in line with the Straight Dope article. I may retract my criticism of the article.
That is certainly better evidence. But I’ve still got this nagging wonder as to when, actually, the idea of sailing on the Spanish Main entered the lexicon; given that the word “main” already meant deep water, one would suspect it was an easy word association. Still, at least the origin of the term would be in line with the Straight Dope article. I may retract my criticism of the article.
I would agree that the usage of “main” for the open ocean could have had some influence in the extension of the term Spanish Main from the mainland of the southern Caribbean area to include the sea off its shores. The earliest citations of the OED, from 1725, does indicate it was at this stage being used to refer to the continent, rather than the sea, however.
Panama was at the heart of the old Spanish Main, and from my window I can see the sites of several battles between the Spanish and pirates who had marched across the isthmus from the Caribbean.
Tierra Firme does not translate to “Main” land. It does, however, equal in meaning the word “mainland” in English.
In order for the assertion that “tierra firme” got translated to “Spanish Mainland” then chopped short to “Spanish Main” to have some credence, one would presumably find examples of reference to the “Spanish Mainland” before any reference to the “Spanish Main.” It is not entirely impossible that the actual sequence was to conflate the “Spanish Main” (meaning the Spanish-ruled ocean) with the mainland owned by Spain at some time, thus becoming the Spanish Main = Spanish coast of Central and South America. As samclem usually points out, in the absence of evidence of derivation of the term, one is on shaky ground making assumptions about its derivation.
Not really. The English word “main” all by itself can simply mean “mainland,” so that “[Spanish] Main” is a direct translation of tierra firme.
From Merriam-Webster:
Bolding mine. This implies, I think, that the use of the word “main” to mean “mainland” preceded its use to mean “high sea,” but the OED should be able to shed some light on the sequence of meanings.
Well, then, apparently a dual meaning for the word was achieved at roughly the same time. In that case, it would be easily understood that the Spanish Main could mean the mainland owned by Spain, even though the word also was applied to the ocean depths.
It’s particularly interesting that the earliest citation from the OED for the use of “main” in the sense of “mainland” is to the first English translation of the works of Peter Martyr d’Anghera, the Royal Chronicler at the court of Spain during the period of the first discoveries. Peter Martyr was one of the first historians of the New World, and included accounts of the West Indies and Tierra Firme in his *De Orbe Novo. * While more context would be necessary to be sure, it is possible the translator was here using “mayne” to translate Tierra Firme.
