main(n.)
Old English mægen (Mercian megen) "power, bodily strength; force, violent effort; strength of mind or will; efficacy; supernatural power," from Proto-Germanic *maginam "power" (source also of Old High German megin "strength, power, ability"), reconstructed to be from a suffixed form of PIE root *magh- "to be able, have power."
The original sense of "power" is preserved in phrase might and main. Also used in Middle English for "royal power or authority" (c. 1400), "military strength" (c. 1300), "application of force" (c. 1300).
I really really wish the ecosystem had simply gone with "trunk" (which is also what Subversion had used, in addition to actually matching the metaphor in play; though, I get that some people don't consider trunk to be a branch... but it is already used in this context for "trunk-based development").
Outside of the context of the culture war, it has gotten a project or two that I've seen to really think about what they should name their branches, and how they could better describe what kind of development happens in them.
Branch names like "stable", "next", and "protobreak" are a lot more understandable than "master" or even "main."
