The Evolving Meaning of Penthouse

Hello,

I love finding a word whose meaning has changed dramatically over its lifetime. Some even achieve the total opposite of their original meaning. Penthouse doesn’t quite fall into that category, but it’s close.

Monte Carlo – home to many penthouses

The word entered English as pentis around 1300 to describe a shed or sloping roof which jutted out from the main wall of side of a building. It came from the Anglo-French word pentiz which itself was a shortening of apentis in Old French. Before the French versions were the Latin versions – appendicium in Medieval Latin and the Latin verb appendere (to hang).

The spelling we would recognise, penthouse, arose in the 1500s by joining pente (slope), a French word, with house. Combining the two gave English speakers an easier way to say and understand pentis and the meaning was one of an attached building with a sloping roof. Nowadays you might refer to a lean-to building or extension, although it would usually be built at ground level rather than above, and the penthouse was always up high. In “The Merchant of Venice” for example, there’s a line – “This is the penthouse under which Lorenzo desir’d us to make a stand” – clearly the characters are underneath a jutting out penthouse overhead.

The penthouse was a humble structure to start, despite its elevation. Apparently there are sermons in Middle English which refer to where Jesus was born as a penthouse. This humble meaning was retained for centuries until the early 1900s when a small house or apartment built on the roof of a skyscraper was called a penthouse. This architectural innovation rapidly became larger and was associated with luxury. Shakespeare wouldn’t recognise the penthouses of today.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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