Pentice

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of architectural overhang or roof that extends from a building's facade to offer protection from weather conditions
2. This structure serves to shelter entrances and is often designed to improve the building's visual appeal
3. An overhanging roof or covering projecting from a wall, typically used to shield an entrance or walkway from rain and sun

Etymology: A pentice is a roof that projects from a wall to shelter whatever lies beneath, and its name is a story of shortened words. It descends from Old French "apentis", meaning an appendage or attached building, which in turn came from Medieval Latin "appendicium", built on Latin "appendo", "to hang". The Anglo-Norman form "pentiz" dropped the initial vowel, a process linguists call aphesis, and the English spelling eventually settled on "pentice" and its variants. The English word has two close relatives in the same family of loans. "Appentice" keeps more of the French shape, while "penthouse" is the familiar modern form, which shows how the same original idea of something hanging off a building split into several English words over the centuries. Because all of them come from one source, they are called doublets.