storey

storey · noun¹

1. Latin · derived frominstaurare“to construct, build, erect”
2. Old French · derived from*estoree“a thing built, building”
3. Ancient Greek · derived fromἱστορίᾱ“learning through research”
4. Medieval Latin · derived fromhistoria“narrative, illustraton, frieze”
5. Middle English · inherited fromstory
6. English todaystorey

From Middle English story, via Medieval Latin historia (“narrative, illustraton, frieze”) from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā, “learning through research”). The current sense arose from narrative friezes on upper levels of medieval buildings, esp. churches. Doublet of story and history. An alternative etymology derives Middle English story from Old French *estoree (“a thing built, building”), from estoree (“built”), feminine past participle of estorer (“to build”), from Latin instaurare (“to construct, build, erect”), but this seems unlikely since historia already had the meaning "storey of a building" in Anglo-Latin.

Storey · proper noun²

Originates from the Old Norse personal epithet “Stóri”, a derivative of “Storr” which means “large” or “big”. Even though it has been established that the root of the name is “Storr”, R.E.K. Rigbeye, in his book The Storey’s of Old claims that the suffix “ey[e]”, in the variant of Storey, is equivalent to the Icelandic “ig” and signifies “water”. According to him, “Storr” also denotes large in the sense of vast and rough.

Words from the same roots