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!
Garrets were originally military watchtowers where soldiers kept guard! The romantic image of the 'starving artist in a garret' connects to this — these high rooms were cheap because they were hard to reach, but they offered the same sweeping views that once helped medieval guards spot approaching enemies. Artists got the views that were once reserved for castle defenders.
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