attic

Attic enters English from French attique (a decorative structure above the main cornice of a building), from Latin Atticus (of Attica, the region around Athens), from Greek Attikos. In classical architecture, an 'Attic order' was a small decorative story placed above the main facade of a building, using pilasters in the Athenian style. The term was used by Roman architects and revived during the Renaissance.

The shift from 'a decorative architectural feature on top of a building' to 'the space under the roof' happened gradually in English during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The top of a building, originally described as 'the Attic story,' was shortened to 'the attic.' The decorative facade fell away from the word, leaving only the space behind it. Athens became a storage room.

In older European houses, the attic was often the servants' quarters — the cheapest rooms, directly under the roof, hot in summer, cold in winter. In the famous garrets of Paris, writers and artists lived in attic rooms because they could afford nothing else. The top of the building was the bottom of the social ladder. The Athenian name decorated a space of poverty.

In American houses, the attic became a storage space — the place where families put things they could not throw away but did not want to see. Boxes of photographs, childhood toys, old furniture, seasonal decorations. The attic is the house's memory, the room that holds what the other rooms have forgotten. Athens became the place where you keep the past.