# a-part ment

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-part-ment/28280>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 5, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-part-ment/28280 "2000-08-05T23:05:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zebbmx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/958977/32.png) [@zebbmx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zebbmx)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-part-ment/28280/1 "2000-08-05T23:05:39Z")

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Why are they ca;;ed apartments when theyre all stuck together?  
thanks

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**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2000, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-part-ment/28280/2 "2000-08-05T23:36:35Z")

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:::Sigh:::

> [@](#):
>
> _Webster’s says:_  
> apartment \A\*part"ment, n. [F. appartement; cf. It. appartamento, fr. appartare to separate, set apart; all fr. L. ad + pars, partis, part. See Apart.] 1. **A room in a building** ; a division in a house, **separated from others by partitions**. --Fielding.

The individual suites are seperated. They are _apart_- divided by walls.

The word originally meant a room seperated from the main building or house. These were rented out or used for special occassions or special people. Eventually someone came up with the idea to have a whole bunch of apartments in one building. I happen to live in an Apartment Complex. There are several buildings. Theses buildings are definitely _apart_ from each other. Building 12 and building 11 are not “stuck together”.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2000, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-part-ment/28280/3 "2000-08-06T04:02:21Z")

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from the Straight Dope FAQs

> [@](#):
>
> **Questions We Refuse to Answer**  
> OK, so we did the “why do we park in the driveway and drive in the parkway” thing. That doesn’t mean we’re going to  
> answer every crackbrain question that turns on some oddity of the English language. In particular, if you ask one of the  
> following, we will track you down and do things to you that we can’t even describe without getting into legal trouble.  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> 8.Why do we call them apartments when they are all together?