- 1頂樓豪宅（台灣也常直接說 penthouse；不是違建的「頂樓加蓋」）
A penthouse is a very expensive, comfortable apartment — or a set of rooms — on the top floor of a building, often with a terrace and a wide view. In films and in property ads it means luxury: the richest home in the tower. Though actually, it did not begin as a fancy rooftop house, and it is not “pent” plus “house” in the way it looks. The older word was a lean-to with a roof stuck on the side of a building. English later reshaped the spelling so it looked like house, and the meaning climbed to the top floor. In careful everyday English, a plain flat on the top floor is just a top-floor apartment; penthouse carries the expensive, glamorous colour. You may still meet the old “extra roof stuck on” idea in architecture history, but students almost always need the luxury-apartment sense.
From the word’s history
From Anglo-Norman pentiz, ultimately from Latin appendō 'to append'; altered by folk etymology to look like a compound with house.
源自盎格魯諾曼語 pentiz，後來被改得像和 house 有關。
組成From Anglo-Norman pentiz (a sloping add-on roof), going back to a form of Latin appendō, “to hang on, to append.” Folk etymology later made it look like a compound of house. It is a doublet of pentice and appentice — same origin, different English shapes.
同家族的字
- penticedoublet: the older English word for that sloping add-on roof
- appenticeanother doublet of the same word
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
penthousenoun/ˈpɛnt(h)aʊs/
- 1
historicalA structure or annexe (especially one with a sloping roof) extending from the side of a building, sometimes as protection from the weather.
- At length, recommending himself to God, he let go one end of his cord, and suffered himself to fall down upon an old shed or penthouse, which, with the weight of his body, fell in with great noise.
- 2
archaicSomething forming a shelter or canopy over something; an awning, shelter, etc.
- The proboscis […] is doubled up by means of the joint, and in that position lies secure under a scaly penthouse.
- 3
hobbieslifestylesportsAny of the sloping roofs at the side of a real tennis court.
- 2005, Tony Collins (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Traditional British Rural Sports, Routledge, page 262, An odd derivative of real tennis lasted until the latter part of the eighteenth century at Rattray in Perthshire. It was played in the churchyard by two pairs of men, and the method for starting the play was to throw the ball onto the church roof, using it like the sloping penthouse of the tennis court.
- 4
An apartment or suite found on an upper floor, or floors, of a tall building, especially one that is expensive or luxurious with panoramic views.
- Night of January 16th is the story of a woman on trial for pushing her wealthy boss-lover from a Manhattan penthouse.
penthouseverb/ˈpɛnt(h)aʊs/
- 1
To provide with a penthouse, shelter by means of a shed sloping from a wall, or anything similar.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。