mansion
/ˈmanʃ(ə)n
/- I remember passing by houses, and semi mansions with their own botanical gardens and Olympic coliseums.
- Spanish colonial mansions, cathedrals, churches, and houses adorn the streets of both cities.
Synonyms
- Towards the end of his life he was living in a dilapidated four-bedroom flat in a 1930s mansion block in north London; he would often take his meals at a cafe in Willesden.
- The worst case I have heard of is at a council-owned mansion block in Camden, where leaseholders were asked to pay £200,000 for repairs.
- The centre will be developed at Home Farm, next to St Ives mansion, and work is expected to begin in the next few weeks.
- It was used to send water from a spring near Haynes mansion into the roof of the building before it was dismantled and brought to Bedford.
- Developers have come under fire as it became clear that an empty Ulverston mansion has become a vandals' playground.
Origin
Late Middle English (denoting the chief residence of a lord): via Old French from Latin mansio(n-) 'place where someone stays', from manere 'remain'.
The rich person's mansion and the minister's manse have the same origin. They both derive from Latin mansio ‘place where someone stays’, from manere ‘to stay’ (the source of remain (Late Middle English) and manor (Middle English)). A mansion was originally the home of a medieval lord of the manor, but the word later extended to any large, impressive house. ‘The principal house of an estate’ was also the original sense of manse; it became increasingly restricted to an ecclesiastical residence, and is now a house occupied by a Church of Scotland or other Nonconformist minister. A son or daughter of the manse (like Prime Minister Gordon Brown) is a child of a Church of Scotland minister. See also palace