From Latin 'mansio' (dwelling), from 'manere' (to remain) — only acquired grandeur in the 1700s; French 'maison' still means 'house.'
A large, impressive house; historically, a dwelling place of any kind.
From Old French 'mansion' (a dwelling, a staying, a habitation), from Latin 'mānsiōnem' (accusative of 'mānsiō'), meaning 'a staying, a remaining, a dwelling place,' from 'manēre' (to remain, to stay, to dwell). The Latin verb descends from Proto-Indo-European *men- (to remain, to stay). In English, 'mansion' originally meant simply 'a dwelling place' without any connotation of grandeur — the King James Bible (1611) uses 'mansions' for the dwelling places in heaven (John 14:2: 'In my Father's house are many mansions'). The word only narrowed to mean
In the King James Bible (1611), Jesus says 'In my Father's house are many mansions' (John 14:2) — but he does not mean palaces. In 1611, 'mansion' simply meant 'dwelling place' or 'room,' from Latin 'mansio' (a place to stay). The grandeur came later, in the eighteenth century, when 'mansion' narrowed to mean specifically a large, impressive house. Meanwhile, the French cognate