mansion and manor

Good question!

Hey, Navigator:

To forget about the other meanings of manor and mansion and concentrate on how they differ as houses: the two words have come to mean the same thing, 'great house of an estate.' Mansion meant 'the lord of the manor's house,' whereas manor meant just 'the main house on an estate.' They were two ways of saying virtually the same thing, but one was more French-sounding (manor from manoir) and one more Latin-sounding (mansion from mansio.)

Thanks! That's always been a mystery to me.

No problem, Eoe! The manor/maison thing is just another oddity that English has...

Well, not to confuse people more, but manor originally only referred to a fortified dwelling of of the lord of the manor or his residential bailiff and administrative centre of the feudal estate ... during the Middle Ages :wink:

And 'mansion' should not be confused with 'Mansion House', which is the official residence of the lord mayor of the City of London :wink: