What does this word mean in the UK???

Question

I love to read UK novels, but sometimes I get lost. why is an apartment called a "flat." , a cigarette called a "***" and an elevator called a "lift".

I wasn't trying to be mean, or rude... I was just curious... so if you don't like it... DON'T answer.

Answer 1

Interestingly enough, the reason a 'flat' is called that is to distinguish it from a house. Homes used to be very skinny, with several small stories stacked on upon another. The single apartment, with neither upstairs nor downstairs, was called a 'flat' dwelling. If you lived in a flat it was a given that you were just a renter, and not a homeowner.
Cigarettes are called fags as an abbreviation for ******, which means a bundle of burning sticks and that's what cigarettes looked like to people, when they were first introduced. Elevators are called lifts (because that's what they do).
There are also differences in spelling, such as tyre for tire. The bottom line is that the English language evolved in Britain, and many of them think the language used in North America has gotten completely out of hand and strayed far from its roots!
I, too, enjoy reading English novels and particularily enoy some of the characters that inhabit the backgrounds of the stories.
Hope this is useful.
Hmmm -- checking this before sending it out, I notice that Yahoo has put in a row of asterisks where I had spelled out the complete word that means a bundle of sticks. Try looking up eff, aye, gee, gee, oh, tee in your dictionary, and you'll see that it is a word with absolutely no sexual significance whatsover.

Answer 2

I think that the English words will have an older derivation, perhaps now, lost in the midst of time. You have to remember that English has evolved over many centuries and includes words from even older languages.

You could argue that " why is a lift called an elevator "
The word "flat" originally related to a flat piece of land or water.
It was then also used to describe each floor of a building that had been flattened and converted into flats. The word "apartment" has a French derivation.

The wordFAG originally related to a tiresome piece of work. It was then used to describe an inferior cigarette, and hence now, all cigarettes. (Sorry, had to abridge to get it to print.) Why, I don't know. Is it a swear word in the USA ? Again a language problem.

We, in England, can't understand why Americans have created so many alternatives to the pre-existing English ones. eg. sidewalk instead of pavement. Trunk of a car instead of boot of a car. there are many more examples.

Remember, many of these words have a long history and it would be a shame to loose them simply to produce an homogenous alternative. Also the novels that you read relate to the time and place and language when/where they were written.

Language should be a rich tapestry not an exact thing or a moral thing. None more so than the English language. Remember, we created it and gave it to the world, but not to change.

Answer 3

In England we use a the word "flat" because the living accommodation is in a building with accommodation on a single floor, therefore the accommodation is on a flat level. As opposed to a "Bungalow" that is a one story accommodation in its own building.

We call a lift a lift because it lifts you from one floor to another just the same as an elevator elevates you from one floor to another. Neither term accounts for lowering you down a floor.

*** is a slang term used for cigarettes in certain parts of this country and not a homosexual as in America. A "*** end" is the remnant, or tail end of something, therefore one might assume that a *** is the whole thing. If we call the end of a cigarette a *** end then the whole must be a ***.

Answer 4

Self explanatory. Because a flat is flat, and a lift lifts you up!! XD

Now "f a g" is a bit more difficult. Apparently it's from an Old English word meaning "to droop" (from the mouth?)

It was commonly used at the beginning of the 20th century. Not sure beforehand.

"By many sources, it is considered a corruption, alteration or variant of flag, hence the “droop” meaning. But just how did f a g get to be known as a “cigarette” in BE and a “male homosexual” in American English? The word "F a g - end" means “remnant,” perhaps for “flag-end.” It has the sense of extreme end, or loose piece, the last and inferior part of anything. It is from this word that the source of the British English f a g for “cigarette” is believed to be derived. "

Fanny is the most bizarre difference between AE and BE. How the hell did it come to mean the front for one nation, and the back end for the other?! XD

And I didn't know what "bangs" where when I first read it. A bang is either an explosion... or colloquially it means shag or to have sex! XD

Answer 5

Only the f-a-g word is a slang term! The others are all the proper 'British-English' names!!

A flat is called that because the dwelling is all on one level - like a lot of bungalows stacked on top of each other. Once you get inside, the floor is flat - no more stairs!

I've got no idea why the word f-a-g was coined for a cigarette though ..!

A lift is called that because it 'lifts' itself and it's contents to higher floors! That's exactly the same reason Americans call them 'elevators' ... lift = elevate ...!

Answer 6

I'm British. Trust me, Americans have just as many weird terms.

An elevator lifts you up, correct? Why not call it a lift. A flat is usually a one story living space. Therefore it's flat..there's no second story.

The cigarette term I can't help you with. Just a slang. I will tell you one of my male friends got a little culture shock when he was at a bar in England and a guy asked him if he wanted to "go outside and blow a ***" (go outside and smoke a cigarette)

Answer 7

Lol, technically the American language is an offshoot of English English, so we must have had the originals... I'm guessing the cigarette b utt is called that because it is the end, or bottom of it, or "f ag" short for "fa ggot" which means a bubdle of sticks, evidently suitable for burning, as a cigarette is, and the term probably originated as a colloqualism but became integrated into the mainstream language. A lift does just that. Lifts you. And a flat? Well it is flat, as in, one floor, single storey. That's my understanding anyway.

We don't understand why you use some of your terms either. E.g. what we call a bum-bag, you call a fanny pack; our pavement is your sidewalk; what we call trousers, you call pants; what we call pants, you call shorts; what we call postcode, you call zip codes; what we call shopping centres are your malls; our motorway is your highway/freeway; our dummies are your pacifiers; your jelly is our jam, our jelly is your jello;our rubbish is your trash; what we call crisps, you call chips; what we call chips, you call fries; what we call biscuits you call cookies; what we call cookies, you call oreos....

We live in two completely different countries. Colloqualism is going to take our language in two completely diff directions, so we will end up with different usages for the same words, and different words for the same objects, even though our root language is the same.

Answer 8

I lived in the UK for two years and was "gobsmacked" at how differently we use the same language. I now find that I too call the elevator a lift and my apartment a flat and ask "are ya all right"? instead of how are you...the trunk of the car is a boot...a diaper is a nappie...your yard is your garden...the baby stroller is a push chair, the stove is a cooker, lunch is dinner and the evening meal is tea. It goes on and on. They own the language so....oh and another one I love...sleeping in in the morning is "having a lie in". It's great.

Answer 9

That lot should keep you going for a while and here's a couple more I don't think have been mentioned yet.

CAR PARK = PARKING LOT
QUEUE (PRONOUNCED "Q") = LINE (OF PEOPLE)
RUBBER = ERASER
COUNCIL ESTATE = PROJECT (HOUSING)
PUBLIC SCHOOL = PRIVATE SCHOOL
COMPREHENSIVE (SCHOOL) = PUBLIC SCHOOL

And one more thing which can cause confusion:
In the UK the Ground Floor is what you call the First Floor. What we call the First Floor is what you call the Second Floor and so on. That's important if you're going to use a lift to go up to a flat in a council estate multi.

Answer 10

Why do people in the US call a car boot a trunk? It's just national variances in a widespread language.

In case you were wondering the 'American' words you use above (eg, apartment, cigarette etc) are used in the UK too as many of our terms are derived from shortened or slang versions of words.