attic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   of or relating to Attica or its inhabitants or to the dialect spoken in Athens in classical times

   Attic Greek.

2. 2
   noun

   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.

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

3. 3
   noun

   A person's head or brain.

   […] 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.

4. 4
   noun

   (architecture) a low wall at the top of the entablature

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Attic came through French attique from Latin Atticus, meaning “relating to Athens or Attica,” and initially named an arrangement of small columns at the top of a building associated with architecture there. From the mid-18th century, attic storey denoted a low space above a building’s main façade, leading to the modern sense “highest storey.”

From Latin Atticus, from Ancient Greek Ἀττικός (Attikós), from some Pre-Greek demonym or toponym for Athens and its hinterland of Attica + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic: forming adjectives”). Equivalent to a modified and clipped Athens + -ic. Doublet of Atticus.

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