mezzanine

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mezzanine,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded in French from 1676 as mezanine,^[2] and partly directly borrowed from Italian mezzanino,^[2] recorded in Italian from 1550.^[2] The Italian word is a diminutive in -ino of mezzano (“middle, intermediate”),^{[2][3][6][7][8]} from Latin mediānus (“in the middle”),^[2][6][4][5] from medius (“middle”),^[4][5][8] from Proto-Indo-European *medhyo- (“middle”).^[5] It is related to median, medium and mezzo.^[6][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A low storey between two higher ones: 1711 in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster.^[5][3] Barnhart dates the word to 1715,^[4] where the OED's first quotation, in Dubois and Leoni's translation of Palladio's Architecture, has a now obsolete sense, a platform laid over a floor to raise it to the required level; the OED dates the low storey to about 1720, in the same translation.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The architectural word, at first for a low storey usually between the ground and first floors,^[2][10] was taken into the theatre in the 19th century: in Britain for the floor beneath the stage from which the traps were worked (1829),^[2][10][11] and in North America for the lowest balcony of a theatre or cinema, a sense Etymonline finds by 1913 and the OED and Barnhart date to 1927.^[5][2][4] In the 1970s finance borrowed it for an intermediate level of funding, especially unsecured, high-yield loans ranking between senior debt and equity (1976).^[2][11] Weekley in 1921 marked the word as archaic, a synonym of entresol.^[12]

Timeline

• 1711 – a low storey between two higher ones.^[5][3] Barnhart dates it to 1715, and the OED to about 1720.^[4][2]
• 1715 – a platform laid over a floor to raise its level (obsolete).^[2]
• 1731 – a small window at the level of a mezzanine (obsolete).^[2]
• 1829 – in the theatre, a floor beneath the stage from which the traps are worked; also adjective, of or on a mezzanine.^[2]
• 1913 – the lowest balcony in a theatre, in North America.^[5] The OED and Barnhart date it to 1927.^[2][4]
• 1976 – adjective, in business, of an intermediate stage or level of financing.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A low storey between two main floors of a building, often one that projects like a balcony over the ground floor; also called mezzanine floor or entresol.^[3][11][2]
2. (US and Canada) The lowest balcony in a theatre or cinema, or its first few rows.^[3][11][2]
3. (British) A floor beneath the stage of a theatre, from which the trapdoors are worked.^[11][3][10]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to an intermediate stage of a financial process, especially unsecured high-yield loans: mezzanine funding.^[11][2]

Related words

• median
• medium
• mezzo
• middle
• mean

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray