Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to the first of Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction! Every week I will be posting some British word, phrase, or cultural reference that I do not find in American culture (in general). I suppose I should have made it Dianna's Daily Dash of Different Diction for a complete alliteration but I decided against it...and I don't want to be committed to posting every day.

We'll start it off simple.

Flat (n.): an apartment or suite of rooms on one floor forming a residence.

This term is chiefly British (as quoted by www.dictionary.com). It is as it is defined. In Britain, you sit in your flat and chat with your flatmates, not your apartment. Before I came to Scotland, I made an extreme effort to say this (and now I'm already having a hard time saying apartment when speaking to Americans) and everyone would go "Oh, flat! That sounds so fancy and European!". When I got here I was speaking to a woman who manages flats and accidentally said apartment. She loved it and thought it sounded very posh (see next week's Dash of Different Diction!) and wished they said apartment instead of flat. Everyone loves the different (another example of this will come in next next week's dash)!