loft
pronunciation
How to pronounce loft in British English:
UK [lɒft]
How to pronounce loft in American English:
US [lɔft]
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- Noun:
- floor consisting of a large unpartitioned space over a factory or warehouse or other commercial space
- floor consisting of open space at the top of a house just below roof; often used for storage
- a raised shelter in which pigeons are kept
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- Verb:
- store in a loft
- propel through the air
- kick or strike high in the air
- lay out a full-scale working drawing of the lines of a vessel's hull
Word Origin
- loft
- loft: [OE] The notion underlying loft is of being ‘high up in the air’ – and indeed originally loft, like its close German relative luft, meant ‘air’. Not until the 13th century do we find it being used in English for ‘upper room’ (although in fact its source, Old Norse lopt, had both meanings). All these words go back to a common ancestor, prehistoric Germanic *luftuz ‘air, sky’. From this was derived a verb *luftjan, which, again via Old Norse, has given English lift [13] (the use of the derived noun for an ‘elevator’, incidentally, dates from the mid 19th century).=> lift
- loft (v.)
- "to hit a ball high in the air," 1856, originally in golf, from loft (n.). Related: Lofted; lofting. An earlier sense was "to put a loft on" (a building), 1560s; also "to store (goods) in a loft" (1510s).
- loft (n.)
- "an upper chamber," c. 1300, from late Old English loft "the sky; the sphere of the air," from Old Norse lopt "air, sky," originally "upper story, loft, attic" (Scandinavian -pt- pronounced like -ft-), from Proto-Germanic *luftuz "air, sky" (cognates: Old English lyft, Dutch lucht, Old High German luft, German Luft, Gothic luftus "air"). Sense development is from "loft, ceiling" to "sky, air." Buck suggests ultimate connection with Old High German louft "bark," louba "roof, attic," etc., with development from "bark" to "roof made of bark" to "ceiling," though this did not directly inform the meaning "air, sky." But Watkins says this is "probably a separate Germanic root." Meaning "gallery in a church" first attested c. 1500.
Example
- 1. I made a loft for my bed , tv , and dvd player .
- 2. Its two-story penthouse loft apartments sold for between $ 3.5 million and $ 10 million .
- 3. In his free time , the young schoolteacher runs a design community in a loft in the capital 's hip 101 district .
- 4. Then he climbed into the loft of the barn and hid the tin beneath a pile of sweet smelling hay .
- 5. A nudge was designed whereby insulation firms would offer to clear the loft , dispose of unwanted items and return the rest after insulating it .