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palazzo

 
Dictionary: pa·laz·zo   (pə-lät') pronunciation
n., pl., -zi (-sē), or -zos.
A large splendid residence or public building, such as a palace or museum.

[Italian, from Latin Palātium, imperial residence. See palace.]


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Architecture: palazzo
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In Italian cities, a large, separate dwelling, often lavish; one of the major categories into which the Italianate style is often divided.


Wikipedia: Palazzo
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Palazzo Senatorio (the Town hall and Mayor of Rome's office, Italy), in Piazza Campidoglio, seen from the top of the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II.
For other meanings (eg the word's use in place names), see palazzo (disambiguation).

Palazzo is more broadly used in Italian than its English equivalent “palace”. In Italy, a palazzo is a grand building of some architectural ambition that is the headquarters of a family of some renown or of an institution, or even what the British would call a “block of flats” or a tenement.

Etymology

The words “palazzo” (Italian), “palace” (English) or “palais” (French) and the other similar words come from the name of the Palatine hill in Rome (in Latin, Palatium). On this hill the patrician family Julia (“gens Julia” in Latin) owned some land and built their residence. When Octavian became Roman emperor after his succession to Julius Caesar their home and the name of the Palatine hill itself became synonymous with Imperial residence.

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Palazzo" Read more