Loft

Loft (connected with “lift,” i.e. raised in the air; O. Eng. lyft; cf. Ger. Luft; the French term is grenier and Ger. Boden), the term given in architecture to an upper room in the roof, sometimes called “cockloft”; when applied over stabling it is known as a hay-loft; the gallery over a chancel screen, carrying a cross, is called a rood-loft (see Rood). The term is also given to a gallery provided in the choir-aisle of a cathedral or church, and used as a watching-loft at night.