Why aren't マンション mansions? Or are they?


And no, this isn't about [property sizes in
Japan](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/15289/104)!

As [Katakana Mysteries: 6 loan words Japan got
wrong](http://nihonshock.com/2009/09/katakana-mysteries-6-loan-words-japan-
got-wrong/) put it:

> Bill Gates or Warren Buffet might be very surprised if they were to buy a
> Japanese _manshon_ , only to find upon their arrival something a bit less
> grand than they envisioned, and that they would be sharing it with quite a
> few other people.

The English edition of Wiktionary claims that it is derived from English:

> Etymology
>
> From English mansion.
>
> Note that while English “mansion” most commonly means “large house”, it is
> also occasionally used to mean “luxurious apartment”, the latter usage being
> followed in Japanese.

And the English language Wiktionary article talks about
[mansion](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mansion#English) meaning "A luxurious
flat" being UK English, which I've heard was the main source of English in the
19th century.

[Japanese English - 10 Truly Bizarre Examples Of Wasei-
Eigo](http://blog.japanalicious.com/japanese-english-crazy-examples.html)
claims it might be borrowed from French:

> マンション (mansion)
>
> Don't get too excited if you're moving to Japan to live in a mansion. These
> mansions are actually condominiums. I have no idea how this creation came
> about. Some of the mansions I've seen in Japan were less than luxurious. Is
> it a joke? I suspect it might be a borrowed word from French.

Is 「マンション」 derived from English, or French? And did Japanese mess up the
meaning of "mansion", or were they being faithful to a meaning that is rarely
used nowadays?




I have nothing to back this up, but following on from Zhen Lin's comment:

It may have come from the British English "mansion block", which I think was a
Victorian invention - the typical one would be something rather impressive in
red brick within a suitably posh London postcode.

They often have names of the form "XYZ Mansions", for example Albert Hall
Mansions and the individual apartments within are called "mansion flats". The
term is still in use (but tends to refer to a period building rather than a
new build).

[This](http://gogen-allguide.com/ma/mansion.html) site says the term in
Japanese really started up in the 1960s - so then again it might just have
been the adoption of a word that made the apartments in question sound more
luxurious - the same reason for the establishment of the phrase 'mansion
block' in English in the first place.




I have nothing to back this up, but following on from Zhen Lin's comment:

It may have come from the British English "mansion block", which I think was a
Victorian invention - the typical one would be something rather impressive in
red brick within a suitably posh London postcode.

They often have names of the form "XYZ Mansions", for example Albert Hall
Mansions and the individual apartments within are called "mansion flats". The
term is still in use (but tends to refer to a period building rather than a
new build).

[This](http://gogen-allguide.com/ma/mansion.html) site says the term in
Japanese really started up in the 1960s - so then again it might just have
been the adoption of a word that made the apartments in question sound more
luxurious - the same reason for the establishment of the phrase 'mansion
block' in English in the first place.

