Art & MusicGreek → English
Attic
/ˈætɪk/noun
The space or room directly under the roof of a house.
The Greek roots
Ἀττικός
Attikós
of Attica
Ἀττική
Attikḗ
Attica, the land of Athens
Literally: “Athenian”
The story of the word
Renaissance architects gave the name Attic order to a low decorative storey of square pilasters placed above the main cornice, crediting the style to Athens. Builders shortened attic storey to attic, and as houses got smaller the grand top storey became the box room where the suitcases live. The same adjective still means something quite different in a library: Attic Greek is the dialect of Plato and the tragedians, and Attic salt is dry Athenian wit.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- late 17th century
Same family
AtticismAttica
In a sentence
The boxes have been in the attic since we moved in.
Insulating the attic cut the heating bill by a fifth.