PENTHOUSE  , a sloping roof attached to a

building either to serve as a porch or a covering for an arcade, or, if supported by walls, as a shed, a " lean-to." In the history of siegecraft, the word is particularly applied to the fixed or movable constructions used to protect the besiegers when mining, working battering-rams, catapults, &c., and is thus used to translate Lat. vinea and gluteus, and also testudo, the shelter of locked shields of the Romans . The Mid . Eng. form of the word is pentis, an adaptation of O . Fr. apentis, Med . Lat. appenditium or appendicium, a small structure attached to, or dependent on, another building, from appendere, to hang on to . The form " pent-house " is due to a supposed connexion with " house " and Fr. pente, sloping roof . The more correct form " pentice " is now frequently used .