mansion

Alternative forms

• mansioun (obsolete)

Etymology

Anglo-Norman, from Latin mansiō (“dwelling, stopping-place”), from the past participle stem of manēre (“stay”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæn(t)ʃən/

Noun

mansion (plural mansions)

1. A large house or building, usually built for the wealthy.
2. (Britain) A luxurious flat (apartment).
3. (obsolete) A house provided for a clergyman; a manse.
4. (obsolete) A stopping-place during a journey; a stage.
   • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. Or, The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. Chapter V.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, or, A Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately Found in Norfolk. Together with The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. With Sundry Observations, London: Printed for Hen[ry] Brome at the Signe of the Gun in Ivy-lane, OCLC 48702491; reprinted as Hydriotaphia (The English Replicas), New York, N.Y.: Payson & Clarke Ltd., 1927, OCLC 78413388, page 192:

     According to that Cabaliſticall Dogma: If Abram had not had this Letter [i.e., ה‎ (he)] added unto his Name he had remained fruitleſſe, and without the power of generation: […] So that being ſterill before, he received the power of generation from that meaſure and manſion in the Archetype; and was made conformable unto Binah.

5. (historical) An astrological house; a station of the moon.
   • Late 14th century: Which book spak muchel of the operaciouns / Touchynge the eighte and twenty mansiouns / That longen to the moone — Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, Canterbury Tales
6. (Chinese astronomy) One of twenty-eight sections of the sky.
7. (chiefly in the plural) An individual habitation or apartment within a large house or group of buildings. (Now chiefly in allusion to John 14:2.)
   • 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, John XIV.2:

     In my Father's house are many mansions [transl. μοναὶ (monaì)]: if it were not so, I would have told you.

   • Denham

     These poets near our princes sleep, / And in one grave their mansions keep.

   • 2003, The Economist, (subtitle), 18 Dec 2003:

     The many mansions in one east London house of God.

8. Any of the branches of the Rastafari movement.

Anagrams

• Manions, Minoans, amnions, onanism