h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Flight, landing, emergency runway - need I say more?

What's the difference between a loft and an attic?

Yes, it is Electric Brae, where the water runs up hill. It rarely gets very far due to the number of tourists getting in the way.
As to the spelling, I only speak Scots, I haven't a clue in the spelling. Its not encouraged at school

On Garters, blokes wore them all the time in Elizabethan days. Helped keep their pantaloons attached to best show off their shapely legs. Certainly according to Orlando by Virginia Woolf, and who am I to disagree?
Might not the Order of The Bath have something to do with the town of Bath? Certainly sounds more chivalrous than a tin tub in front of the fire.

As I never seem to know the origin of things and words and such, I'll offer my opinion ...
Always thought of an attic as a room at the top of a house, where a loft is mearly storage.

As my witness I call "hay loft"

To my mind a loft must encompass the entire floorplan of the building whereas an attic need not. Thus, in general, a loft is bigger than an attic.
The dictionary does not seem to have any distinction.

I think the distinction between loft and attic is purely a geographical one. Loft is North of England, attic is South (I think). In Dublin, we say Attic.

The word is also very occasionally used as a translation of the French 'atelier' meaning an artist's studio. This sort of attic is sometimes found in a basement.

The TY company that gave us Beanie Babies (the cuddly toys) also produce 'Attic Treasures'. I keep expecting these to carry Lyres and Amphorae.

We always called it a loft (in the SE of Engl.) But attics always sounded more exciting. Our loft was tidy and organised and attics always (in Enid Blyton-type books) seemed to be untidy and full of secrets.

I must just get rid of the line:

"I woke up with my hair full of aeroplanes this morning - must have left the landing light on."

Thank you.

As a growing lad in the N of England we had an attic.
Lofts were what you kept t'pigeons in
Now I live in london and see adverts for lofts on the sides of old warehouses that have been bought by propery developers.

I've heard of loft conversion, but not attic conversion. Loft insulation but not attic insulation. And I live in London!

There was a DIY store that ran a campaign with the slogan "Attack that attic" but it was all Greek to me.

There was many many years ago a computer game called Attic Attack.

There isn't much of a difference between lofts and attics, although lofts came first and an attic is always a loft, but a loft isn't necessarily an attic. Loft originally meant 'in the air', and 'attic' arrived much later from Attic architecture and denoted the bit of a building between the main columns and roof. Attic can now mean the bit of a house above the roof beams, but this tends to be synonymous with garret i.e. if you can't live in it, it's still just a loft.

Whereas the German version was Loftwaffe attack!

Attica is a town in Greece, yes? Attic is definitely from the greek architectural style. As Mycroft says, the inverted V-shaped (or A-shaped) space below the roof but above the beams which span the standing columns.
A garret is more of a small room in corners or peaks of more complex European roof designs (castles, cathedrals), and is probably French from the same root as 'gare' (station) or garage.
Loft is a form of 'lift', any storage space well above ground level to which goods (hay, etc) are lofted for protection from rodents and flooding.
~jwf~

Wots a garret then ?

Red

Its where consumptive poets eak out their meagre lives writing poetry that is unappreciated until they die, after which it sells for thousands, and conniving agents make a mint. Have a habit of being drafty and badly lit.

Thankyou Munchkin - my yearning is fulfilled. Any idea as to origin ?

Red

Loft + conversion = attic

I'm a southerner (a Surreyite to be precise) and I have always known of both lofts & attics. There may be regional variations where folk only use one or the other, but I know they're not the same thing. I've had a loft in one house and an attic in another. Perhaps another difference could be that loft ladders are temporary telescopic affairs, while an attic always has stairs (with or without TC's landing lights).

It's a bit like chalk and cheese - they're not the same thing either.

What's a stair well ? Is it only that bit of a stair case (a receptacle for keeping stairs in ?) that descends below ground level, but that doesn't actually lead anywhere (seen it in blocks of flats). Thinks:- do flats come in any other shape ?

Aloft seems connected to alight, aboard and abord.

This is a curious device (adding a letter a) that doesn't seem to work for any other vowel.

What does "avast" mean ? (I do know it's nautical, and much used by pirates etc.)

Back to attics etc., what's a dormer window (my attic had one, and it just looked like a window to me).

in my case ,attic-floor/ceiling=loft,in half the house,so a loft can be a converted attic,looks up at skylight,trying to see where all that rain gets in...