Other forms: atria, atriums
An atrium is a tall open space rising through the middle of a building. A glass atrium, the hotel atrium, an atrium roof.
It brings daylight into the middle of a deep building, which is its whole purpose, and the modern glass-roofed kind dates from the 1960s. In a Roman house the atrium was the central courtyard open to the sky, with a pool to catch rainwater. In anatomy, the atria are the two upper chambers of the heart. Note the plural atria.
1nounatriumA tall open space rising through the middle of a building.
“The hotel's glass atrium is filled with palm trees and light.”
2nounupperOne of the upper chambers of the heart.
“The right atrium fills roughly seventy times a minute.”
atrium is a central space.
Latin atrium was the central hall of a Roman house, possibly from Etruscan. It may be related to ater, black, from the soot of the hearth.
Latin
ātrium — entry hall
English, today
atrium
From Latin ātrium (“entry hall”), from ett -.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Buildings & Architecture