The word 'storey' originates from the same Latin source as 'story', the word 'historia', meaning a narrative or account. In medieval architecture, the term was applied to levels of a building, particularly those adorned with rows of windows or sculptures depicting historical or biblical tales, thus a 'story' came to denote a floor. The spelling 'storey' emerged to distinguish this architectural sense from the narrative one. This etymological journey illustrates how a concept of narrative ('historia') became metaphorically attached to the visual tiers of a building and eventually specialized to denote any floor level.

The word 'storey' is a simplex word. It is a variant spelling of 'story', derived from the Anglo-Latin term 'historia', which in medieval building context referred to a tier of painted windows or sculptures on a building's front, often telling a story.