attic1
/ˈatɪk
/noun
A space or room inside or partly inside the roof of a building: I discovered a dozen rolls of the original wallpaper in a tin trunk in the attic [as modifier]: there are five attic bedrooms...
- Telli woke the next morning to the patter of rain on the roof above his attic room.
- They had a small attic room in the roof which was full of old toys.
- Spare bedrooms or large closets make good drying rooms, but hot attics and damp cellars generally do not.
Synonyms
loft, roof space, cock loft;
garret, mansard, loft conversion
informal, dated sky parlour
Origin
Late 17th century (as an architectural term designating a small order (column and entablature) above a taller one): from French attique, from Latin Atticus 'relating to Athens or Attica'.
Attic originally referred to an arrangement of small columns at the top of a building. It is from French attique, from Latin Atticus ‘relating to Athens or Attica’, from the type of architecture found there. The phrase attic storey, used from the mid 18th century, described a low space above the main tall façade, which eventually gave attic the sense ‘highest storey of a building’.
Rhymes
Attic2
/ˈatɪk/adjective
Relating to ancient Athens or Attica, or the dialect of Greek spoken there.The Persians marched across the Attic peninsula and burned Athens....
- As in the main scene, she wears a high-crested Attic helmet.
- It is written in Attic Greek, with much studiedly antithetical rhetoric and frequent verbal borrowings from the classical authors.
noun [mass noun]
The dialect of Greek used by the ancient Athenians. It was the chief literary form of classical Greek.
Origin
Late 16th century: via Latin from Greek Attikos.