Other forms: penthouses
A penthouse is the luxury apartment on the very top floor of a tall building. A penthouse suite, live in a penthouse, penthouse views.
It was the least desirable floor before lifts existed, and the whole prestige of it depends on machinery. The word has nothing to do with house: it comes from a French word for an appendage, meaning a lean-to shed attached to a wall, and folk etymology reshaped it.
1nounpenthouseThe luxury apartment on the top floor of a building.
“The rich businessman lives in a penthouse with views over the whole city.”
penthouse is an apartment.
Anglo-Norman pentiz meant a lean-to shed, from Latin appendere, to hang on. Folk etymology reshaped it towards house.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)pend-
Latin
appendō — to append
Anglo-Norman
pentiz — pentice
English, today
penthouse
Built from
From Anglo-Norman pentiz (“pentice”), from apendiz (“appentice”), ultimately from a suffixed form of Latin appendō (“to append”). Altered by folk etymology to appear to be a compound of house. a doublet of appentice and pentice.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA