[Sca-cooks] Flats and flatmates

[Phil Anderson]

Bear wrote:


>> And I assume there's not just an extra 'L' in "flatmate". So why
>> are they called "flats"? This is what Americans call "apartments", right?
>
> A flat is an apartment on one floor of a building.  The term is used in the
> U.S., primarily on the East Coast.  The word appears to be an altered form
> of the Scots "flet" meaning the inner part of a house or floor.

As Lucrezia is a kiwi, she's probably using New Zealand English...

A "flatmate" is a non-relative/non-partner with whom you share a
dwelling when you go flatting. The flat itself can be pretty much any
sort of dwelling -- I've lived in large houses, small cottages, multi-unit
buildings and half-houses which all count as flats. It's the fact that
people are flatting in it that makes it a flat, not any features of design.

Edward Long-hair
Southron Gaard
(skipping several weeks of the list to catch up again!)