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mansion

MAN-shun · noun

LatinAnglo-NormanMiddle EnglishEnglish

Origin

Mansion comes from Middle English mansioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman mansion/mansiun, which traces to Latin mānsiō, meaning 'dwelling, stopping-place.' That Latin noun grew from the past participle stem of manēre, 'to stay.'

Journey

The word's root sense was simply a stopping-place where one stays, not necessarily anything grand — the grandeur is a later association, though the facts here don't detail exactly when that shift happened.

Related words

By surface analysis, mansion breaks down as manse plus the suffix -ion, tying it to the word 'manse,' another word for a dwelling place, particularly a clergyman's house.

More words

From Anglo-Norman

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