A question of meanings

[Moo]

A friend's dictionary says that 'loft' and 'attic' are synonymous.
I think that a loft is the space below the roof, while an attic is a purpose-built room.

Which is right?

 

[Cloudscape]

I have a hay loft. It was purpose-built for hay. :wink:

 

[biffvernon]

We've got an attic.

Lounge or sitting room?

 

[Flyfisher]

Lounge or sitting room?

Drawing room.

 

[middi]

Some people have lofty attic rooms ( ? )

 

[Nemesis]

Withdrawing room, shurely?

(No Moo it's a Private Eye joke not a spelling error or a bad eyesight typo.)

 

[Flyfisher]

Well that's the derivation, certainly, but I've never heard anyone actually refer to a 'withdrawing room'.

 

[Nemesis]

My dear chap - to where do you think the ladies withdraw after dinner?

http://www.duncombepark.com/wedding_ladies_withdrawing_room.shtml

 

[biffvernon]

The sitting room is next to the drawing room.

 

[Moo]

And then, of course, there's the breakfast room.

 

[Nemesis]

Oop norf, there's the kitchen. If you are lucky you have the scullery.

If really grand, there's the parlour. Where you have the settee. Not the sofa.

 

[Moo]

While we're at it - what's the difference between a pantry and a larder?

 

[Nemesis]

My pantry/larder is in reality a dairy.

I also have a hayloft.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Where I grew up we had a living room and a front room.

 

[Flyfisher]

. . . and you try and tell that to the young people of today . . .
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

 

[Raylea]

We have a living room, sitting room, dining room and a drawing room.

Raylea :wink:

 

[Nigel Watts]

"Attic - An attic is a low story above the main order or orders of a facade, in the classical styles. The term was introduced in the 17th century and describes a room or rooms behind that part of the exterior and all the rooms immediately below the roof.
©2007 The Probert Encyclopaedia"

But why "attic"? - presumably the word derives from Attica, the area of Greece of which Athens was and is the principal city.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Nigel - yes, from Attica. 2 etymology entries from Dictionary.com:


Attic:

1599, "of or pertaining to Attica," from L. Atticus, from Gk. Attikos "of Attica," the region around Athens. Attested from 1563 as an architectural term for a type of column base.

attic:

"top storey under the roof of a house," 1855, shortened from attic storey (1724). The term Attic order in classical architecture meant a small, square decorative column of the type often used in a low storey above a building's main facade, a feature associated with the region around Athens (see Attic). The word then was applied to "a low decorative facade above the main story of a building" (1696), and it came to mean the space enclosed by such a structure. The modern use is via Fr. attique. "An attic is upright, a garret is in a sloping roof"

So now we know!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Loft meanwhile seems to come from the old Norse word "lopt" via Middle English. And to confirm the original suggestion it refers to a room in the attic which is the space below the roof.

Again from the online etymology dictionary:

loft:

"an upper chamber," c.1300, from late O.E. loft "air," from O.N. lopt "air, sky," originally "upper story, loft, attic" (Scand. -pt- pronounced like -ft-), from P.Gmc. *luftuz "air, sky" (cf. O.E. lyft, Du. lucht, O.H.G. luft, Ger. Luft, Goth. luftus "air"). Sense development is from "loft, ceiling" to "sky, air." Buck suggests ult. connection with O.H.G. louft "bark," louba "roof, attic," etc., with development from "bark" to "roof made of bark" to "ceiling," though this did not directly inform the meaning "air, sky." Meaning "gallery in a church" first attested 1504. Verb meaning "to hit a ball high in the air" is first attested 1857, originally in golf. Lofty "exalted" is from 14c.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Oop norf, there's the kitchen. If you are lucky you have the scullery.

Back kitchen (as I recall my granny describing it)? which begs the question of where the front kitchen is