| \dih-MEYN, -MEEN\ | noun
1. possession of land as one's own: land held in demesne.
2. an estate or part of an estate occupied and controlled by, and worked for the exclusive use of, the owner. | | Quotes | As the foregoing analysis has demonstrated, the proportion between land held in demesne and land held by subtenants seems to have been relatively stable throughout the later Anglo-Saxon period and even beyond the Conquest.
-- Francesca Tinti, Sustaining Belief, 2010 | | Origin | | Demesne is derived from the Middle English word demeine. It is related to the more common word domain, which also comes from the Latin word dominicus meaning "of a master." | |
