attic
pronunciation
How to pronounce attic in British English:
UK [ˈætɪk]
How to pronounce attic in American English:
US [ˈætɪk]
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- Noun:
- floor consisting of open space at the top of a house just below roof; often used for storage
- informal terms for a human head
- (architecture) a low wall at the top of the entablature; hides the roof
Word Origin
- attic
- attic: [18] In classical architecture, an Attic order was a pilaster, or square column (the naḿe comes from Attica, a region of ancient Greece of which Athens was the capital). This type of column was often used in a relatively low storey placed above the much higher main façade of a building, which hence became known in the 18th century as an attic storey. It was a short step to applying the word attic itself to an ‘upper storey’; the first record of it in this sense comes in Byron’s Beppo 1817: ‘His wife would mount, at times, her highest attic’.
- Attic (adj.)
- 1590s, "pertaining to Attica," from Latin Atticus, from Greek Attikos "Athenian, of Attica," the region around Athens (see Attica). Attested from 1560s as an architectural term for a type of column base.
- attic (n.)
- "top story under the roof of a house," 1855, shortened from attic storey (1724). The term Attic order in classical architecture meant a small, square decorative column of the type often used in a low story above a building's main facade, a feature associated with the region around Athens (see Attic). The word then was applied by architects to "a low decorative facade above the main story of a building" (1690s in English) to convey a classical heritage where none exists, and it came to mean the space enclosed by such a structure. The modern use is via French attique. "An attic is upright, a garret is in a sloping roof" [Weekley].
Example
- 1. I thought we were going to the attic ?
- 2. The main spiral staircase depicts a rhythmic ribbon that ascends to attic space .
- 3. His attic is full of treasures .
- 4. Paintings found in lobjoie 's attic bear hitler 's signature .
- 5. Make sure to add fiberglass insulation to the attic side of your access door too .