attic: [18] In classical architecture, an Attic order was a pilaster, or square column (the na?e 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 fa?ade 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].
雙語例句
1. There are five bedrooms, a large attic above, and wine cellars below.
有5間臥室，頂層是一個寬敞的閣樓，底下是酒窖。
來自柯林斯例句
2. I outfitted an attic bedroom as a studio.
我把閣樓臥室改裝成了工作室。
來自柯林斯例句
3. furniture stored in the attic
存放在閣樓的家具
來自《權威詞典》
4. The idea evolved from a drawing I discovered in the attic.
這種想法是從我在閣樓里發現的一幅畫得到啟發的。
來自《權威詞典》
5. I've cleared out all that old junk in the attic.