(orig. adj.). [a. F. Attique, ad. L. Atticus: see prec.]
1. A decorative structure, consisting of a small order (column and entablature) placed above another order of much greater height constituting the main façade. This was usually an Attic order, with pilasters instead of pillars; whence the name.
[1676. Félibien, Princ. Archit., 481. Nous appellons aussi Attique dans nos bastimens un ordre que l’on met sur un autre beaucoup plus grand … Ce petit ordre n’a ordinairement que des Pilastres d’une façon particuliere, qui est à la maniere Attique dont le nom luy a esté donné.]
1696. [not in ed. 1678] Phillips, Attick, we call Attick in our Buildings a little Order plac’d upon another much greater: for that, instead of Pillars, this Order has nothing but Pilasters of a particular Fashion and Order which is call’d Attick.
1760. Raper, in Phil. Trans., LI. 804. The height of the attic [in the Pantheon] above the cornice it stands upon, is 27 feet 23/4 inches.
1874. J. Fergusson, St. Paul’s, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 750. The introduction of an Attic over the main Order.
2. attrib. quasi-adj. in Attic storey: originally the space enclosed by the structure described in prec. sense; hence, the top storey of a building, under the beams of the roof, when there are more than two storeys above ground. So attic-floor, -room, etc.
1734. De Foe, etc., Tour Gt. Brit. (1769), I. 74. The Rustic and Attic Stories are 12 Feet high each.
1769. Phil. Trans., LIX. 72. They have no Attic story, only ware-houses, and one floor over them.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. iii. The attic floor of the highest house.
3. The highest storey of a house, or a room in it; a garret. Humorously, the ‘upper storey,’ the brain.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xxv. His wife would mount, at times, her highest attic.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 464. Betaking himself with his books to a small lodging in an attic.
1870. Alford, in Life (1873), 467. Tolerably well all day, but the noise in the attic unremoved.
