Where does “mainstream” come from?
Mainstream derives from English main and stream, with main coming from French main, Middle French main, and Latin manus meaning "hand," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European men- or man-.
mainstream (English): Used or accepted broadly rather than by small...
Definitions
- Used or accepted broadly rather than by small...
Ancestry of “mainstream”, step by step
mainstream traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English stream
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | stream | A small river; a large creek; a body of moving... |
| 2 | Middle English | streem | Alternative form of strem |
| 3 | Middle English | strem | A waterbody; a region of the world containing... |
| 4 | Old English | strēam | current; stream |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | straum | stream |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | straumaz | stream, current, river |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | srowmos | river |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | srew- | to flow, stream |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ser- | to flow; to guard; to bind, to tie together |