attic

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).

• IPA^(key): /ˈætɪk/, [ˈæɾɪk]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ætɪk

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.

   • 2018, “Cash Maniac”, performed by Denzel Curry:

     In my Wonderland, I'm back on my Alice
     Back in my palace, I'm fly like Aladdin
     Serving my fans all my dope, 'cause they addicts
     Haters mad 'cause I'm on top like an attic
     And if it's beef then we're shooting sporadic
     Game is like Disney, my words are like magic

2. (architecture) A storey or a parapet above the cornice of a classical façade, often decorated.
3. (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.

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

• Catti, tacit, ticat

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

1. obsolete form of atic

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