A small room at the top of a house, typically under the roof; an attic room.
From Old French 'garite' meaning 'watchtower' or 'place of refuge,' derived from 'garir' meaning 'to defend' or 'to protect.' The same root gave us 'garrison.' Originally, a garret was a defensive lookout point at the top of a castle or fortification. The meaning shifted to any high room because attics, like watchtowers, were the highest accessible spaces in buildings. So your dusty attic storage room is named after medieval military architecture!
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