apartment

Where does the word "apartment" come from? It comes from Italian appartare, passing through French before entering English (1640s).

Apartment’s story begins in Italian: appartare meant “to set apart.” To separate, from 'a parte', apart. By 1600s, the word had taken hold in French as appartement. A suite of rooms in a palace. It reached English by 1640s as apartment. The flat-sense arrived in America in the 1800s, when the Stuyvesant Apartments (1869) brought Parisian-style living to New York. Today, apartment means a set of rooms forming one residence in a larger building.

1. Stage 1 · Italian · medieval appartare "to set apart", to separate, from 'a parte', apart.
2. Stage 2 · French · 1600s appartement "suite of rooms", a suite of rooms in a palace.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1640s apartment "suite of rooms; flat", the flat-sense arrived in America in the 1800s, when the Stuyvesant Apartments (1869) brought Parisian-style living to New York.