mainor

From Anglo-Norman meinoure, Old French manuevre. See maneuver and French main (“hand”).

mainor (plural mainors)

1. (law, UK, obsolete) The act or fact, especially of theft.
2. (law, UK, obsolete) A stolen article found on the person of the thief.
   • 1821, Anthony Mills, The Ancient Ordinances and Statute Laws of the Isle of Man:

     for the future one credible Witness proveing the Fact, and supported by probable Circumstances, or the Mainor being upon Search or otherwise found with or upon the Malefactor […]

• A thief was said to be "taken with the mainor" when he was taken with the thing stolen upon him, i.e. in his hands.

• “mainor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• A minor, A-minor, Marion, Morian, Romani, Romina, in mora, inamor, manoir, roamin'