mansion [LME] The rich person’s mansion and the minister’s manse [LME] have the same origin. They both derive from Latin mansio ‘place where someone stays’, from manere ‘to stay’ (the source of remain [LME] and manor [ME]). 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 [M19th] is a child of a Church of Scotland minister. See also palace.