penthouse

▪ I. penthouse, pentice, n.
    (ˈpɛnthaʊs, ˈpɛntɪs)
    Forms: see below.
    [ME. pentis, rarely pendis, app. aphetic from OF. apentis, apendis, -deis: cf. med.L. appendicium in Promp. Parv. and Cathol. Angl. = pentyce, pentis; also appenditium in Du Cange ‘a small sacred building dependent upon a larger church’, post-cl. L. appendicium an appendage, f. appendĕre to hang something on another, to attach in a dependent state. As a small building, erected as a ‘lean-to’ to another, has usually a roof with one slope only, the word was evidently from an early period (esp. in the aphetic form) associated with F. pente slope, declivity, ‘hang’, which became at length a regular element of the sense; hence the later popular etymology pent-house for pentis: cf. work-house, vulgarly workis.
    The OF. apendis and apentis appear to represent L. appendicium and *appenditicium. But the early history of the word offers difficulties, esp. that in OF. the short forms without a- are very rare, while in Eng. they are the earliest, appentice not being known before Caxton.]
    A. Illustration of Forms.
    (α) 4 pendize, 6 pendis, 7–8 pendice.

c 1325 Pendize [see B. 1]. 1592 Manch. Court Leet Rec. (1885) II. 60 Settinge vpp a houell..or slated pendis. 1656 Pendice [see B. 1 b]. 1749 Fairfax's Tasso xi. xxxiii, O'er their Heads an iron Pendice [earlier edd. pentise, -ice] vast.

    (β) 4 pentiz, 4–6 pentis, pentys, (5 penttis, pentace), 5–7 pentise, 5–6 pentyse, (-yce, -es, -esse, 6 -isse, -ische, -ose, 7 -ese, pantise), 6–8 (9 arch.) pentice.

c 1325 Pentiz [see B. 1]. 1381–2 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 389 Pro coopertura del pentys scaccarii. c 1420 Wyclif's Bible, Neh. vii. 4 marg. gloss, Hulkis and pentisis weren maad bisidis the wallis. 1435 Nottingham Rec. II. 359 Undder ye penttis. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 392/2 Pentyce, of an howse ende, appendicium. 1449–50 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 239 Pro factura ij pentacez. a 1500 Pentice, 1523 Pentesse [see B. 1]. 1530 Pentes, Pentys [see B. 2]. 1579 Nottingham Rec. IV. 182 Makyng of..ij. pentyces. 1598 Queen Elizabeth Plutarch xiii. 29 Thogh pentische Like the windowe built. a 1599, 1600 Pentise [see B. 1, 2]. 1615 Manch. Court Leet Rec. (1885) II. 306 Erectinge certen postes and coveringe them w{supt}{suph} Large penteses. 1640 Somner Antiq. Canterb. 204 The long low Entry in the Division called the Pantise. 1804 R. Anderson Cumbid. Ball. 105 She sticks out her lip leyke a pentes. 1884, 1901 Pentice [see B. 1, 5]. 1885 Julia Cartwright in Portfolio 114 The poor..were fed daily..under a pentise, or covered way.

    (γ) 6– penthouse, pent-house, (6 penthehouse, 7 paint-house).

1530 Palsgr. 253/1 Penthouse of a house, appentis. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 267 He caused all the Penthehouses of the Towne of Parys to be pulled downe. 1573–1883 Penthouse, Pent-house [see B. 1, 2]. 1606 Chapman Mons. D'Olive Plays 1873 I. 211 Faith Sir I had a poore roofe, or a paint-house To shade me from the Sunne.

    B. Signification.
    1. A subsidiary structure attached to the wall of a main building and serving as a shelter, a porch, a shed, an outhouse, etc. a. Such a structure having a sloping roof, formerly sometimes forming a covered way between two buildings, or a covered walk, arcade, or colonnade, in front of a row of buildings; a sloping roof or ledge placed against the wall of a building, or over a door or window, for shelter from the weather; sometimes also applied to the eaves of a roof when projecting considerably.

c 1325 Metr. Hom. 63 Thar was na herberie To Josep and his spouse Marie, Bot a pendize that was wawles, Als oft in borwis tounes es. Ibid. 66 In a pouer pentiz, I wys. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. iv. xxvi. 2648 Betwene howsis twa Quhare men gert a pentys ma. 1467–8 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) I. 328 Owyr that to make a pentyse and a fyttyng place undre, for the wyrship of the citte marchaundes..to sat there⁓upon for ther eyse. a 1500 in Arnolde Chron. (1811) 92 Yf ony other pentice [AFr. in Liber Albus I. 336, appentices] porche or gate be ouyr lowe lettynge the people coming or ryding. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cxxv. 150 Than kyng Philyppe..or he went caused all ye pentessys in Parys [les appentiz de Paris] to be pulled downe. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 254 Penthouse, or the house eauings. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. vi. 1. a 1599 in Hakluyt's Voy. II. ii. 70 In ech side of the streetes are pentises or continuall porches for the marchants to walke vnder. 1624 Wotton Archit. in Reliq. (1672) 48 Those Climes that fear the falling..of much Snow, ought to provide more inclining Pentices. 1668 Pepys Diary 15 June, [At Marlborough] Their houses on one side having their pent-houses supported with pillars, which makes it a good walk. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. ix, It cast off the Rains like a Penthouse. 1755 Johnson, Penthouse, a shed hanging out aslope from the main wall. 1816 Southey in Q. Rev. XVI. 372 Under the pent-house of a cottage. 1884 Sat. Rev. 5 July 13/2 The projecting corbels..show that a pentice ran along that side.

    † b. Without reference to a sloping roof: Any smaller building attached to a main one, an annex; spec. at Chester: see quots. 1810, 1886.

1483 Cath. Angl. 275/1 A Pentis (A. Pentesse), appendix, appendicium, appendiculum; appendicius. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1895) IV. 249 He built that famous stately Theater..and joyned unto that also another House, as a Penthouse [ὤσπερ ἐϕόλκιόν τι] to his Theater. c 1650 in R. H. Morris Chester (1895) 200, 1497 the North syde of the Pentice was new buylded, and, 1573, the Pentice was enlarged, and the inner Pendice made higher, the nerer made lesser. The Sheriffs Court removed to the Comon Hall. 1656 W. Webb W. Smith's Vale-Roy. Eng. 39 S. Peters [Chester]..underneath the church in the street is the Pendice, a place builded of purpose, where the Major useth to remain. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4409/2 Chester, Febr. 7... The Mayor entertain'd several Gentlemen and Citizens in the Pent-house. 1810 Lysons Cheshire 582 An ancient building called the Pentice,..called in some old Charters the appentice, was formerly the place in which the Sheriffs' courts were held, and banquets given. Note. Appentitium,..a smaller building annexed to a larger one. 1886 R. Holland Chester Gloss. s.v., The Pentice at Chester was an ancient building attached to St. Peter's Church, which was taken down about the year 1806.

    c. A shed having a sloping roof, as a separate structure.

1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1828) I. xiv. 432 Without other abodes than natural caverns or miserable penthouses of bark. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge lx, Fleet Market..was a long irregular row of wooden sheds and pent-houses.

    d. A separate flat, apartment, etc., situated on the roof of a tall building.

1921 Country Life Apr. 65/1 Two of the elevators were designed to run to the roof, where a pent-house..was being built. 1937 Sunday Dispatch 28 Feb. 2/7 You all know from American lyric writers that a pent-house is a thing stuck on a roof. It may comprise one or two floors. 1945 E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. viii. 194 They're going to build a block of flats, and..Rex wanted to take what he called a ‘penthouse’ at the top. 1948 National Home Monthly Feb. 21/2 Back in London in 1932..they built London's first penthouse. 1955 A. Huxley Let. 18 Mar. (1969) 738 After that expect to be in NYC until mid-June, when I am to be lent a pent-house on Park Avenue. 1956 ‘N. Shute’ Beyond Black Stump ii. 52 They live in lovely sort of flats called penthouses on the top of skyscrapers. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 July 371/3 After years of travel they built in 1936 what the author calls a ‘penthouse’ in Park Lane. It was eighty feet above street level. 1978 Country Life 3 Aug. (Suppl.) 29/1 A Penthouse with magnificent Thames views..to be sold on a 995 years lease at the rental of one Red Rose on Midsummer Day.

    2. a. Applied to various structures or contrivances of the nature of or akin to a sloping roof, whether attached to something else or independent; as an awning over a stall or a window; a canopy; a shed for the protection of besiegers, or a covering formed of the soldiers' shields held over their heads (L. pluteus, testudo). b. spec. The corridor with sloping roof round three sides of a tennis-court.

1530 Palsgr. 253/1 Pentes or paves, estal, soubtil. Ibid. Pentys over a stall, avuent. 1600 Fairfax Tasso xvii. x, He on his Throne was set,..Under a Pentise wrought of Silver bright. Ibid. xviii. lxxiv, Their targets hard aboue their heads they threw, Which ioynd in one an iron pentise make. 1608 Willet Hexapla Exod. 603 It might serue as a pentice to defend the vaile. 1611 Cotgr., Auvent, a pent⁓house of cloth &c., before a shop window, &c. 1651 Rec. Dedham, Mass. (1892) III. 187 The shingling of the pent⁓house ouer ye Bell. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 265/1 Pent-house, the place on which they first cast out the Ball [at Tennis]. 1847 Longfellow Ev. i. i, Hives overhung by a penthouse. 1863 G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators I. 23 Under cover of a moveable pent-house,..the head of the column had advanced their battering-ram to the very wall. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining, Penthouse or Penthus, a wooden hut or covering for the protection of sinkers in a pit bottom. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 626/2 [Royal tennis] is now played in a walled and roofed court, 110 ft. by 38 ft. 8 in., the floor, however, measuring but 96 ft. by 31 ft. 8 in., the difference being the width of a roofed corridor, the ‘pent⁓house’, which runs along the two end walls and one of the side walls. 1935 Encycl. Sports 619/1 This sloping roof is called the ‘penthouse’, and is, perhaps, the most characteristic feature of a tennis court. 1963 Times 25 May 4/5 Those first four games had cost Aberdare and Warburg the first set, but they were now going well, with Aberdare the best of the four on the floor and Warburg, although he put too much on the penthouse, setting up a powerful attack.

    3. fig. Applied to things, material or immaterial, likened to a penthouse, as serving for defence, or as projecting above something (e.g. the eyebrows).

1589 Nashe Anat. Absurd. B iij, A pretence of puritie, a pentisse for iniquitie. 1639 Shirley Ball i. ii, Not above your forehead, When you have brush'd away the hairy pentehouse, And made it visible. 1704 Swift Batt. Bks. Misc. (1711) 253 Like a shrivled Beau from within the Pent⁓house of a modern Peruke. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe ii, There..lurked under the pent-house of his eye that sly epicurean twinkle. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 657 He dragg'd his eyebrow bushes down, and made A snowy penthouse for his hollow eyes.

    4. (Properly with capital initial.) The name of a theatre at the University of Washington, used attrib. to denote a style of theatre production in which the audience sits in a circular formation around a central acting area. (Cf. arena 5.)

1940 Nation's Schools Nov. 19/1 The penthouse style was first employed by us in the autumn of 1932. Ibid. 20/3 Modern comedy and farce, preferably with a single interior setting, are the most successful plays for a pent⁓house theatre. Ibid. 21/3 Without the aid of scenic background and conventional stage atmosphere..the ordinary amateur is not an effective instrument and in penthouse productions he must be effective. 1942 G. Hughes Penthouse Theatre iii. 17 Plays which could not very well be done Penthouse style. Ibid. viii. 53 We designed a Penthouse Theatre because we had created a tradition of arena production. 1959 W. C. Lounsbury Backstage from A to Z 5 Arena stage... Also known as arena staging, circular staging, theatre in the round, central staging, Penthouse staging, etc.

    5. attrib. and Comb., as penthouse apartment, penthouse-cornice, penthouse flat, penthouse-roof, penthouse suite; also fig. (see 3), as penthouse brows, penthouse eyebrow, penthouse hat, penthouse lid (= eyelid); penthouse nab, penthouse-like, † penthouse-steep adjs.

1935 A. Squire Sing Sing Doctor v. 59 He developed a taste for lavish *penthouse apartments. 1948 Sun (N.Y.) 30 Dec. 8 (caption) Construction view of the eighteen-story and penthouse apartment building being erected by Samuel Rudin on the former Temple Beth-El site at the south corner of Fifth avenue and 76th street.

1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. viii. 163 This wordly dowager, with keen eyes glittering under *penthouse brows.

1691 Dryden K. Arth. iii. ii, My *pent-house eye-brows, and my shaggy beard. 1947 Auden Age of Anxiety iii. 95 Peasants with penthouse eye⁓brows.

1972 K. Bonfiglioli Don't point that Thing at Me vii. 61 Fifth-floor *penthouse flats in Upper Brook Street. 1977 Wandsworth Borough News 16 Sept. 15/2 Planning Proposals... Star and Garter Mansions, Lower Richmond-road—erection of penthouse flat on the roof of the building situated between two existing false gables.

1823 Scott Peveril xxiv, His huge *penthouse hat.

1605 Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 20 Sleepe shall neyther Night nor Day Hang vpon his *Pent-house Lid.

1588 ― L.L.L. iii. i. 17 With your hat *penthouse-like ore the shop of your eies.

1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew, *Pentice Nab, a very broad-brmd Hat. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Penthouse nab, a broad-brimmed hat.

1901 S. K. Levett-Yeats Traitor's Way x. 124 A thin slit of sky was visible between the *pentice roof.

1681 Cotton Wond. Peak (ed. 4) 43 The first steps..Were easie,..Scarce *pent-house-steep.

1948 Time 8 Nov. 6/1 The eleventh-floor *penthouse suite. 1973 Times 5 Dec. 18/1 Sir Lew Grade..is occupying the penthouse suite of the plush Century Plaza hotel.

▪ II. penthouse, v.
    (ˈpɛnthaʊs)
    Also 8 pentise.
    [f. prec. n.]
    (Almost always in pa. pple.)
    1. trans. To furnish with a penthouse.

1615 G. Sandys Trav. 32 The inferior [Mosques] are..pent⁓housd with open galleries. 1777 W. Gostling Canterb. (ed. 2) 29 A stone wall..pentised over head, was called by the poor people their cloisters.

    2. fig. To cover or shelter as with a penthouse; to overhang as a penthouse.

1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 23 The Gloworm or Glass⁓worm. Her Eyes..are pent-hous'd under the broad flat cap or plate which covers her head. 1833 Wordsw. Wren's Nest v, Others [nests] are pent-housed by a brae That over⁓hangs a brook. 1845 Talfourd Vac. Rambles I. 91 The little old, odd, town of Cluses stands actually pent-housed by the mountain sides.

    3. To make like a penthouse; to cause to project.

1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. viii. §6 It being pen[t]-housed out beyond the foundation, and intent of the Statute. a 1661 ― Worthies, Oxfordsh. (1662) 329 With these Verdingales the Gowns of Women beneath their wastes were pent-housed out far beyond their bodies.

Oxford English Dictionary