Literary notes about Main (AI summary)
The word "main" is used in literature as a multifaceted term that signals primacy or centrality in both abstract and concrete contexts. Authors deploy it to highlight primary themes or subjects—such as a central idea in a treatise on psychology or the core thesis of a philosophical work ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5])—while simultaneously employing it to designate geographical or social centralities, like a principal road or body of water ([6], [7], [8], [9]). In narrative descriptions, "main" often designates key structural components, whether referring to the leading element in a military formation ([10], [11], [12]) or the central passage in a building or ship ([13], [14], [15]). Its appearance in grammatical and rhetorical discussion further highlights its role in signposting fundamental parts of sentence construction ([16], [17], [18], [19]). In sum, the term serves to mark what is most essential in a variety of contexts, from thematic focus to tangible landmarks.
- Hence the incestuous fixations of the libido still play or again are playing the main rôle in his unconscious psychic life.
— from Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud - The main subject of the book is what you can get out of the online resource.
— from The Online World by Odd De Presno - I bring money, and that's the main thing, got by my own industry without wronging anybody."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - This is the kernel of the Ethics , and all the rest is subordinate to this main interest and purpose.
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle - At the same time he makes a point of determining his main thesis independently of remoter consequences.
— from Gorgias by Plato - When he had gone a mile farther he found himself on the main road.
— from Korean folk tales : by Pang Im and Yuk Yi - This vessel had recently arrived from the Spanish Main, and, within three days' time, would sail for Bristol.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - In the evening [March 23] we returned to the main land, attended by the same pilot.
— from A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499 - With mournful eyes they gaze, and gaze again; Loud howls the storm, and drives them o'er the main.
— from The Iliad by Homer - By nine o'clock Crocker, of McPherson's corps, who was now in advance, came upon the enemy's pickets and speedily drove them in upon the main body.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - He may when thus threatened retire, when he would fight strongly and successfully if attacked by main force.
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini - The main bodies had left at eight or nine in the evening, leaving detachments to keep up a fire from the batteries.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - In the distance there was a large triangle of candles flickering on the main altar, K. was not certain whether he had seen them earlier.
— from The Trial by Franz Kafka - From this main aisle opened passages at a distance of every twelve or fifteen feet, leading, I supposed, to smaller chambers.
— from She by H. Rider Haggard - I was on the main deck in the twinkling of an eye.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - Here gentleman (a complement in the main clause) is modified by the adjective clause who was born in the village ( a ).
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - Sometimes the subjunctive serves as a main sentence: see 1762 ; sometimes a noun of the verb: see 1766 .
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane - The objection is that the interposed phrase or clause needlessly interrupts the natural order of the main clause.
— from The Elements of Style by William Strunk - The main caesura is rarely preceded by a monosyllable.
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane
