1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Storey

STOREY (equivalents are Fr. étage, Ital. piano, Ger. Stock), the term in architecture given to the floor of a building, and employed generally when referring to a number of floors one above the other; thus a building may be of two, three or more storeys high. It used to be applied to a series of apartments on one floor, which are now generally known as a flat. “Storey” or “story” is from O. Fr. estorée, building, estorer, to build, equip, furnish, store, from Lat. staurare, only seen in compound instaurare, to repair, restore, ultimately from root sta, to stand. “Story,” a tale or narrative, is a shortened form of “history.”