mezzanine
UK /ˈmɛzəniːn/ · US /ˈmɛzəˌnin/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms mezzanines mezzanining mezzanined
- noun An intermediate floor or storey in between the main floors of a building; specifically, one that is directly above the ground floor which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, and so resembles a large balcony overlooking the ground floor; an entresol. “On our way to the top floor, we stopped at the mezzanine.”
- noun (by extension) An apartment, room, etc., on such an intermediate floor.
- noun (Canada, US) The lowest balcony in an auditorium, cinema, theatre, etc.; the dress circle.
- noun Additional flooring laid over a floor to bring it up to some height or level.
- noun In full mezzanine window: a small window at the height of a mezzanine floor (sense 1.1) or an attic, used to light these floors.
- noun (theater, obsolete) A floor under the stage, from which contrivances such as traps are worked.
- adjective (banking, business) Characteristic of or relating to high-interest loans which have no collateral, and are regarded as intermediate in nature, ranking above equity but below secured loans.
- adjective (engineering) Fulfilling an intermediate or secondary function. “To make interconnections easier, we added a mezzanine PCB.”
- verb (transitive) To fit (a building or other place) with a mezzanine floor.
Synonyms
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from French mezzanine, and from its etymon Italian mezzanino, from mezzano (“(adjective) middle; (noun) go-between”) + -ino (diminutive suffix). Mezzano is derived from Latin mediānus (“central, middle”, adjective), from medius (“mid, middle”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [F. mezzanine, It. mezzanino, fr. mezzano middle, fr. mezzo middle, half. See Mezzo.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mezzanine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details