penthouse

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpɛnt(h)aʊs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pentis, pendize, altered by folk etymology through association with Middle French pente (“slope”) and English house.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Middle English word is borrowed from Anglo-Norman pentiz, a shortening of Old French apentis (“attached building, appendage”),^[2][3][4][6] from apent, past participle of apendre (“to belong, depend, hang against”),^[2][7] from Medieval Latin appendicium (“appendage”),^[3][4][6] from Latin appendere (“to hang, suspend”) (see append).^[2][3][4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A shed or sloping roof attached to the wall of a main building, a lean-to (c. 1325 in the OED and Merriam-Webster's Word Histories; about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline).^{[9][10][3][4]} The earliest known example is a metrical sermon describing the wall-less pendize that sheltered Joseph and Mary.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The modern spelling dates from about 1530, when the word still meant an attached building with a sloping roof or an awning;^[3][4][9] the association with French pente introduced the idea of a slope.^[11] Johnson (1755) defines it as a shed hanging aslope from the main wall, quoting Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.^[12] In real tennis it is the sloping roof along three sides of the court (17th century).^[13][2] The sense of a structure or dwelling built on the roof of a building is from the 19th century,^[13][7] and it has since come to suggest a luxurious apartment with wide views.^[14][2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – pendize, a lean-to.^[3][4]
• 1364 – pentys.^[3]
• c. 1530 – penthouse.^[3][4][9]
• 1615 – verb, to furnish with a penthouse.^[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An apartment or dwelling on the roof or top floor of a building, often with a terrace.
2. A structure on the roof of a building housing machinery, such as a lift or water tank.
3. A shed or sloping roof attached to the side of a building or wall; a lean-to.
4. (real tennis) The sloping roof along three sides of the court, off which the ball is served.

Word family

• penthouselike

Related words

• append
• appendix
• pendant
• lean-to
• pent

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press