attic

English

Etymology

From the practice of decorating the top storey of building facades in the Attic architectural style. From French attique, from Latin atticus, from Ancient Greek Ἀττικός (Attikós).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈætɪk/,

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ætɪk

Noun

attic (plural attics)

1. The space, often unfinished and with sloped walls, directly below the roof in the uppermost part of a house or other building, generally used for storage or habitation.

   Synonyms: loft, garret

   We went up to the attic to look for the boxes containing our childhood keepsakes.

2. (slang) A person's head or brain.

   Synonym: upper storey

   • 1875, John Wight, Mornings at Bow Street, page 105:

     […] was a diminutive, forked-radish sort of a young man, very fashionably attired, or, as he would say, kiddily togg'd; and, though it was scarcely noon, he was rather queer in the attic; that is to say, not exactly sober.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• atelier (artist or artisan's space, sometimes in an attic (loft))

Anagrams

• Catti, tacit, ticat

Romanian

Adjective

attic m or n (feminine singular attică, masculine plural attici, feminine and neuter plural attice)

1. Obsolete form of atic.

Declension

References

• attic in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN