Etymologically
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penthouse

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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
  • 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