Britishisation of American English.

[MacLeod]

In my experience a lot of these aren't really happening. I've never heard anyone use the word Chav, and doubt anyone would have a clue what that's about it I did try to use it. Cheeky? Nah. I think if someone called their apartment a "flat" without being British I'd laugh in their face. C'mon man.

I do say "innit" a lot... but with a fake Ali G style accent.

Actually I've found that flat IS gaining more use. I've also hear "flatmate" more often. The one caveat to all of this is that you hear these terms being used by more educated Americans that travel internationally or are likely to consume British media. That, sadly, is not most Americans. I work for an international organization, so its hardly shocking that I hear more britishisms since they are accurately described as part of "International English." For instance, holiday is more widely used outside of North America instead of vacation. The same is true for flat.

Well terms like flatmate(Housemate) means you share a property together. Whilst roommate tends to indicate you share a single room.

 

[Yoda]

Roommate doesn't really mean that here though. It's more of a catch-all term. Who the hell shares a room anyway... college students in dorms? Aside from that it's only situations we wouldn't typically refer to as "roommates" anyway like grade school aged siblings and couples.

 

[John Mason]

Good lord, outrageous it is!

 

[Shazam!]

I was taught Queen's English and got americanized via the internet. I still use British spelling, most of the time

: (

 

[B.J.]

Roommate doesn't really mean that here though. It's more of a catch-all term. Who the hell shares a room anyway... college students in dorms? Aside from that it's only situations we wouldn't typically refer to as "roommates" anyway like grade school aged siblings and couples.

Not in my experience. I would never refer to my former housemates as roommates. Roommates was only used for those on campus actually sharing a room.

 

[Satyrquaze]

I first heard 'Chav' in an epside of Doctor Who and had no idea what it meant. I looked it up.

The rest of them I'm pretty familiar with due to watching British TV or the few British friends I have.

 

[Yoda]

Roommate doesn't really mean that here though. It's more of a catch-all term. Who the hell shares a room anyway... college students in dorms? Aside from that it's only situations we wouldn't typically refer to as "roommates" anyway like grade school aged siblings and couples.

Not in my experience. I would never refer to my former housemates as roommates. Roommates was only used for those on campus actually sharing a room.

Sounds like an Alabama homophobia thing to me

 

[RoJoHen]

Roommate doesn't really mean that here though. It's more of a catch-all term. Who the hell shares a room anyway... college students in dorms? Aside from that it's only situations we wouldn't typically refer to as "roommates" anyway like grade school aged siblings and couples.

Not in my experience. I would never refer to my former housemates as roommates. Roommates was only used for those on campus actually sharing a room.

Sounds like an Alabama homophobia thing to me

Yeah, "roommate" is the only word I've ever heard used around here. Flatmate? Housemate? Never heard them anywhere other than the BBC. I live in a two-story, 4-bedroom house with another guy; I call him my roommate.

 

[B.J.]

Roommate doesn't really mean that here though. It's more of a catch-all term. Who the hell shares a room anyway... college students in dorms? Aside from that it's only situations we wouldn't typically refer to as "roommates" anyway like grade school aged siblings and couples.

Not in my experience. I would never refer to my former housemates as roommates. Roommates was only used for those on campus actually sharing a room.

Sounds like an Alabama homophobia thing to me

Really?!?? You jump straight to homophobia from that?

Besides, this was in Georgia. (Okay, not that far away...) But still, a conglomeration of people from all over the country, and those that rented a house together we all called housemates. Because when you have a house that has 8 people living in it in 6 different rooms, it didn't sound right to call them all "roommates".

 

[Yoda]

It was just a joke. But you seemed to get really worked up about it... is it because I used the winking smiley on you? Did that make you feel... uncomfortable?

Anyway Wikipedia's entry on "roommate" has the same distinction between British and American usage. Seems like you'd only want to avoid using the term if you were... for some reason... terrified of even the possibility that someone may think you share a bedroom with another man... just sayin'.

 

[MacLeod]

But as there is a distinction between the two terms roommate and flat/housemate in English (British). If parts of the US have started to use the two words to make the distinction recently then a Britishism would have started to be used. Of course that doesn't mean that is the case in the whole of the US.

 

[Yoda]

Yes, Alabama and Georgia, ground zero for the invasion of British culture

Having a specific term for someone that you share a bedroom with in a non-romantic non-sibling way doesn't seem that useful, I really doubt it's something that's catching on. "Housemate" isn't common because we have a strong concept that an apartment is not a house. "Apartmentmate" is never gonna happen, because I mean just look at it, it's preposterous. "Flatmate" isn't going to happen because we don't call 'em "flats", and "apartments" is good enough.

You can't just repurpose "roommate" because the current usage is much more useful than the alternative and as a bonus it already encompasses the British definition.

 

[Candlelight]

I've never heard of Numpty until today.

Pity Wimmen never caught on.

 

[MANT!]

After 3 years in the UK when I returned, I used some British"isms" but after an experience in a small town in Northern Louisiana, I found that Britishisms could get you in a LOT of trouble...