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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DEMESNE

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pronounce DEMESNE:

duh MANE
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connect this word to others:

The fancy-looking word demesne has plenty of plainer synonyms, like realm, field, turf, orbit, jurisdiction, and b__l_w_ck.

Can you recall that last one? It means "someone's specific area of skill, knowledge, or authority," one that reminds you of an area of land assigned to a public officer.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  

definition:

In its most literal sense, "demesne" means "ownership" or "possession." This word traces through French back to the Latin dominus, meaning "lord or master," and it showed up in English in the 1300s in a translation of the Latin phrase tenere in dominico: "to hold (land) in demesne," meaning to hold ownership of that land.

We can still use "demesne" today to mean "land owned by someone."

And in a broader, more general sense, we use it to mean "the area that someone controls in a rigid, all-powerful way, as if they're a sovereign from centuries past."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind: "He's losing control over his demesne." 

Other forms: 

Just the plural noun, "demesnes," as in "He who can confer demesnes and diamonds has much in his favor (Charles James Lever)."

how to use it:

"Demesne" is a somewhat rare, scholarly-sounding word that often expresses a negative, critical tone.

When you want to imply that some powerful person or group rules over some area like a cruel and all-powerful king, treating everyone in that area as if they're powerless peasants, then call that area a demesne.

For example, you might talk about a corporate demesne, or a social media giant's demesne, or the demesne of a popular demagogue.

examples:

"Palo Alto and the surrounding demesnes—mostly sunny, rich, and liberal—are not often thought to reflect the plight of the great American middle."
— Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 31 March 2016

"[Some people] conclude that anyone who isn't in a position to be controlled by these too big to jail, too big to fail, relentlessly enshittifying corporations [like Facebook] must be pushed into their demesne. This is a deal with the devil."
— Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic, 23 March 2024

has this page helped you understand "demesne"?

   

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If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "demesne" without saying "domain" or "territory."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Describe an impressive property, company, industry, neighborhood, city, or country.) And over this great demesne, (somebody) rules."

Example 1: "Paramount Media Networks encompasses MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and many more channels. And over this great demesne, CEO Chris McCarthy rules."

Example 2: "Judge Miller's place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half-hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by graveled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars... And over this great demesne Buck ruled." 
— Jack London, The Call of the Wild, 1903




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for May is "Color Your Own Colloquialism."

I'll give you the outline of a colloquialism, from English or translated from another language, along with its definition, and you create your own version of it. Your version can be goofy, straightforward, or unrepeatable in polite company: just have fun with it! To see the real version of the colloquialism, scroll all the way down. 

Try this one today: 

Meaning: "This situation is now a big deal, or is now out of control."

Outline: "This turned into a serious (type of dish) with (some ingredient)."

review this word:

1. Near-opposites of DEMESNE include

A. BLITZKRIEG (a sudden, powerful attack) and WATERLOO (a crushing, final defeat).
B. MAGNUM OPUS (a consummate work of art or literature) and PIECE DE RESISTANCE (a main dish or most impressive item).
C. HINTERLAND (a distant, unknown, unconquered place) and LOTUSLAND (a place where residents live lazy, dreamy lives).

2. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison noted how the names of the streets fail to reflect the true history of the San Fernando Valley, largely ignoring "_____."

A. the Spanish missionaries and ranchers who divvied [Native American lands] up into demesnes more enormous than dukedoms
B. Yankee Californians who... demesned citrus, wheat, barley, peaches, sugar beets, walnuts and that one-time-yield crop, suburbs
C. the dentist, David Emory Burbank, who... came thisaway just after the demesne of the Civil War, from San Francisco, and bought more than 9,000 acres




Answers to the review questions:
1. C
2. A

From the game, here's the real version of the colloquialism:

"This turned into a serious bowl of rice with mango." That one's a Cuban colloquialism translated from Spanish.



a final word:


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I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


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