This word used to mean "apartment" or "dwelling" with no pejorative connotation. It took on the meaning of an overcrowded slum in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For some reason, it always makes me think of a clutter of antennas on rooftops.
Maybe the "tenn" sound does it. I think of a similar image when I hear this word.
This word used to mean "apartment" or "dwelling" with no pejorative connotation. It took on the meaning of an overcrowded slum in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For some reason, it always makes me think of a clutter of antennas on rooftops.