Storey

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈstɔː.ɹɪ/

Definitions

1. A horizontal layer within a building that defines its height and space allocation is known as a level in architecture
2. A distinct level or floor that makes up the vertical divisions of a building
3. One of the horizontal sections stacked vertically within a building's overall structure

Etymology: The building level you walk up to, and the story you tell, turn out to be the same word. Medieval builders decorated the upper levels of churches with narrative friezes, painted or carved scenes from scripture and history, and those picture-cycles were called by the Latin "historia," meaning narrative or illustration. Because the pictures sat one tier above another, the word came to name the tier itself, and English picked it up from Anglo-Latin usage in that sense. The word traces back to Ancient Greek "historia," which meant learning through inquiry or research, from the verb for finding out by investigation. Over centuries that root split into two English words that remain close kin: "story" in its narrative sense and "history" in its scholarly sense, both descended from the same Greek source. "Storey" is the spelling that keeps the building sense distinct, a doublet of "story" and "history."

Synonyms: floor, level, tier, story, section

Antonyms: ground, base, foundation, bottom, sublevel