Mains
- this term for the home farm of an estate, cultivated for the proprietor, still occurs throughout Scotland as a farm name, taking the form 'Mains of...' in northern Scotland and as '... Mains' in the rest of the country. Examples include Blackburn Mains and Carberry Mains in West Lothian, and Mains of Ardestie and Mains of Balgavies in Angus. The word is a shortened form of demense 'land possessed or occupied by the owner himself, and not held of him by any subordinate tenant', and was borrowed from Anglo-Norman.