attic [L17th] Attic originally referred to an arrangement of small columns at the top of a building. It is from French attique, from Latin Atticus ‘relating to Athens or Attica’, from the type of architecture found there. The phrase attic storey, used from the mid 18th century, described a low space above the main tall façade, which eventually gave attic the sense ‘highest storey of a building’. Attic as a description of something from Attica is late 16th century.