# Why are the floors of a building called "stories"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-floors-of-a-building-called-stories/581033>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 7, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-floors-of-a-building-called-stories/581033 "2011-05-07T01:13:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dkimchi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@dkimchi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dkimchi)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-floors-of-a-building-called-stories/581033/1 "2011-05-07T01:13:19Z")

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Cecil’s response here, even though this is a “classic”, is way off the mark. The etymologists consulted must have given him a bum steer.  
Outside of the USA, the word for the number of levels in a building is storey, with a plural of storeys. As with a great many English words, it was probably brought over here intact, but mis-spelling over a couple of hundred years has caused the “e” to be dropped.

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-floors-of-a-building-called-stories/581033/2 "2011-05-07T02:28:41Z")

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The original column, [Why are the floors of a building called “stories”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/501/why-are-the-floors-of-a-building-called-stories)

[Etymonline.com](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=story&searchmode=none), probably based on the OED, pretty much agrees.

> [@](#):
>
> “floor of a building,” c.1400, from Anglo-L. historia “floor of a building” (c.1200), also “picture,” from L. historia (see history). Perhaps so called because the fronts of buildings in the Middle Ages often were decorated with rows of painted windows.

What difference it could make whether the spelling is otherwise story or storey is something I can’t answer, meaning that I can’t figure out the OP’s point at all.