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Definition of penthouse - 6 dictionary results

pent⋅house

  [pent-hous]
Use penthouse in a Sentence
–noun, plural -hous⋅es  [-hou-ziz] .
1. an apartment or dwelling on the roof of a building, usually set back from the outer walls.
2. any specially designed apartment on an upper floor, esp. the top floor, of a building.
3. a structure on a roof for housing elevator machinery, a water tank, etc.
4. Also called pent, pen⋅tice  [pen-tis] . a shed with a sloping roof, or a sloping roof, projecting from a wall or the side of a building, as to shelter a door.
5. any rooflike shelter or overhanging part.
6. shed roof.
7. Court Tennis. a corridor having a slanted roof and projecting from three walls of the court.
Origin:
1520–30; alter. (by folk etymology) of ME pentis < OF apentiz, equiv. to apent ptp. of apendre to hang against (see appendant ) + -iz (F -is) < VL *-ātīcium, n. use of neut. of *-ātīcius, equiv. to L -āt(us) -ate 1 + -īcius adj. suffix

Related forms:
penthouselike, adjective

shed roof

 
–noun
a roof having a single slope.
Also called penthouse.

Origin:
1730–40
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To penthouse
pent·house   (pěnt'hous')   
n.  
    1. An apartment or dwelling situated on the roof of a building.
    2. A residence, often with a terrace, on the top floor or floors of a building.
    3. A structure housing machinery on the roof of a building.
  2. A shed or sloping roof attached to the side of a building or wall.
  3. Sports The sloping roof that rises from the inner wall to the outer wall surrounding three sides of the court in court tennis, off which the ball is served.

[Alteration of Middle English pentis, pentace, a shed attached to a wall of a building, from Anglo-Norman pentiz, penthouses, from Old French apentiz, penthouse, from apent, past participle of apendre, to belong, depend, from Medieval Latin appendere, from Latin, to hang, suspend; see append.]
Word History: The word penthouse goes back to Latin appendere, "to cause to be suspended." In Medieval Latin appendere developed the sense "to belong, depend," a sense that passed into apendre, the Old French development of appendere. From apent, the past participle of apendre, came the derivative apentiz, "low building behind or beside a house," and the Anglo-Norman plural form pentiz. The form without the a- was then borrowed into Middle English, giving us pentis (first recorded about 1300), which was applied to sheds or lean-tos added on to buildings. Because these structures often had sloping roofs, the word was connected with the French word pente, "slope," and the second part of the word changed by folk-etymology to house, which could mean simply "a building for human use." The use of the term with reference to fancy apartments developed from its application to a structure built on a roof to cover such things as a stairway or an elevator shaft. Penthouse then came to mean an apartment built on a rooftop and finally the top floor of an apartment building.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Penthouse

Pent"house`\, n. [A corruption of pentice.] A shed or roof sloping from the main wall or building, as over a door or window; a lean-to. Also figuratively. "The penthouse of his eyes." --Sir W. Scott.

Penthouse

Pent"house`\, a. Leaning; overhanging. "Penthouse lid." --Shak. "My penthouse eyebrows." --Dryden.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : penthouse
Spanish: ático,
German: die Dachterrassenwohnung, Dachterrassen…,
Japanese: 屋上住宅
More Translations »

penthouse 
M.E. pendize, c.1325, from Anglo-Fr. pentiz, aphetic of O.Fr. apentis "attached building, appendage," from M.L. appendicium, from L. appendere "to hang." Modern spelling is from 1530, by folk etymology influence of M.Fr. pente "slope," and Eng. house (the meaning at that time was "attached building with a sloping roof or awning"). Originally a simple structure (M.E. homilies describe Jesus' birthplace in the manger as a "penthouse"); meaning "apartment or small house built on the roof of a skyscraper" first recorded 1921, from which time dates its association with luxury.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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