| Author |
Message |
Andrew Gwilliam
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 9:52 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On 22 Apr 2005 08:34:24 -0700, R H Draney wrote:
| Quote: | Andrew Gwilliam filted:
On 22 Apr 2005 08:02:48 -0700, R H Draney wrote:
Andrew Gwilliam filted:
In article <4268fd60$0$38044$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>,
Andrew Gwilliam <bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
Is "bedsit" used in AmE?
It would usually be associated with single mothers, students, and the
low-paid.
Approximate AmE equivalent: "studio apartment"....r
To my BrE ears that sounds like something a yuppie would live in.
The place I used to live rented four sizes...in decreasing size and cost, they
were "two bedroom, two bath", "two bedroom one bath", "one bedroom one bath" and
"studio"...my girlfriend at the time (originally from Bournemouth, so she had to
learn the terminology) lived in a studio, and I'd never call her a yuppie....r
|
It was the phrase "studio apartment", as distinguished from "studio". But
it could be idiolectal.
--
Andrew Gwilliam
To email me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "silverhelm" |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Tony Cooper
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 9:58 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 08:18:09 -0700, John Dawkins <artfldodgr@aol.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | In article <d4b1ha$2ve$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk>,
"Laura F. Spira" <laura@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 14:34:23 +0100, Andrew Gwilliam
bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
Is "bedsit" used in AmE?
Never by an American to an American.
Nor is "rooms". We can speak of renting a room, but we don't rent
rooms or have rooms.
[I hate it when this happens...]
"Trailers for sale or rent,
Rooms to let, fifty cents...."
Yes, a boarding house may have several "rooms to let" at any one time.
|
Uhhh....Laura was making a funny. The boarding house may have several
rooms to rent, but each renter lives in a room and not in rooms. Even
if the renter rents two rooms and combines them, he does not live in
rooms in US parlance.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Tony Cooper
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:06 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 15:02:28 +0000 (UTC), Areff <me@privacy.net>
wrote:
| Quote: | Andrew Gwilliam wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:38:10 -0700, John Dawkins wrote:
In article <4268fd60$0$38044$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>,
Andrew Gwilliam <bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
Is "bedsit" used in AmE?
No. (What does it mean?)
It's a very small flat that, aside from a kitchen (or kitchen area) and a
bathroom, only has one room. It's short for bed-sitting room (because it
combines the functions of a bedroom and a sitting room).
Corresponding terms in AmE include "studio" and "efficiency".
|
I dunno about that. There's a "cheap accommodation" connotation to
"bedsit" that isn't present in "studio" or "efficiency". It's the
same connotation that we get from "rooming house" as compared to a
house that has been converted to small units.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Tony Cooper
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:11 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:27:40 +0100, Andrew Gwilliam
<bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
| Quote: | On 22 Apr 2005 08:02:48 -0700, R H Draney wrote:
Andrew Gwilliam filted:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:38:10 -0700, John Dawkins wrote:
In article <4268fd60$0$38044$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>,
Andrew Gwilliam <bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
Is "bedsit" used in AmE?
No. (What does it mean?)
It's a very small flat that, aside from a kitchen (or kitchen area) and a
bathroom, only has one room. It's short for bed-sitting room (because it
combines the functions of a bedroom and a sitting room).
It would usually be associated with single mothers, students, and the
low-paid.
Approximate AmE equivalent: "studio apartment"....r
To my BrE ears that sounds like something a yuppie would live in.
|
To my mind, too. If I read a line in the beginning of a book that
reads: "He returned to his bedsit and sat down to write his mother."
I start picturing the character as a person with a low income. If the
line reads "He returned to his studio apartment and sat down to write
his mother.", I start imagining the person as at least somewhat
affluent.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Laura F. Spira
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:16 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
Tony Cooper wrote:
| Quote: | On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:27:40 +0100, Andrew Gwilliam
bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
On 22 Apr 2005 08:02:48 -0700, R H Draney wrote:
Andrew Gwilliam filted:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:38:10 -0700, John Dawkins wrote:
In article <4268fd60$0$38044$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>,
Andrew Gwilliam <bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
Is "bedsit" used in AmE?
No. (What does it mean?)
It's a very small flat that, aside from a kitchen (or kitchen area) and a
bathroom, only has one room. It's short for bed-sitting room (because it
combines the functions of a bedroom and a sitting room).
It would usually be associated with single mothers, students, and the
low-paid.
Approximate AmE equivalent: "studio apartment"....r
To my BrE ears that sounds like something a yuppie would live in.
To my mind, too. If I read a line in the beginning of a book that
reads: "He returned to his bedsit and sat down to write his mother."
I start picturing the character as a person with a low income. If the
line reads "He returned to his studio apartment and sat down to write
his mother.", I start imagining the person as at least somewhat
affluent.
|
If I read your first example, I picture "he" as an American living in
the UK: in BrE he would write *to* his mother.
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sara Lorimer
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:18 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
Tony Cooper <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
| Quote: | On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 15:02:28 +0000 (UTC), Areff <me@privacy.net
wrote:
Andrew Gwilliam wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:38:10 -0700, John Dawkins wrote:
In article <4268fd60$0$38044$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>,
Andrew Gwilliam <bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
Is "bedsit" used in AmE?
No. (What does it mean?)
It's a very small flat that, aside from a kitchen (or kitchen area) and a
bathroom, only has one room. It's short for bed-sitting room (because it
combines the functions of a bedroom and a sitting room).
Corresponding terms in AmE include "studio" and "efficiency".
I dunno about that. There's a "cheap accommodation" connotation to
"bedsit" that isn't present in "studio" or "efficiency".
|
Also "studio" doesn't imply "soon to be the victim in a murder mystery"
the same way "bedsit" does.
| Quote: | It's the
same connotation that we get from "rooming house" as compared to a
house that has been converted to small units.
|
Argh -- there's a term on the tip of my fingers, but I can't quite think
of it. SRO? SRA? Single... residency... bah. Areff, you must know what
I'm talking about; they're written about in the New York papers
frequently. It's what you get when hotels are converted to really cheap
housing with shared bathrooms.
The housing I'm thinking of often has government sponsorship, however,
which I don't associate with "bedsits."
--
SML |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Andrew Gwilliam
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:36 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:27:07 +0000 (UTC), Areff wrote:
| Quote: | Andrew Gwilliam wrote:
Incidentally, some places have shared kitchen facilities.
I think if something doesn't have its own kitchen it can't be an
"apartment". It's just a "room".
|
We were talking about bedsits. They could still have their own bathroom
even if they didn't have their own kitchen.
If someone shared a house, then they'd have a "room".
--
Andrew Gwilliam
To email me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "silverhelm" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Areff
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:54 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
Skitt wrote:
| Quote: | Areff wrote:
When I "moved" to Chicago (TLCIA) and looked for an apartment
therein, one odd thing I noticed right away was a weird new category
of apartment called "convertible". This was essentially what in New
York would be a large and/or "L-shaped" studio, capable, based on
size and/or layout, of being converted into something like a
one-bedroom (e.g. by way of a make-shift door or barrier separating a
bedroom space from the rest of the living space). Not used in New
York (LCIA).
That was called a Junior 1-bedroom apartment when I lived in one for a while
between marriages. This was in the SF Bay Area (Sunnyvale).
|
That term is also used in New York (LCIA).
--
I'm comparatively normal for a guy raised in Brooklyn.
- Alvy Singer |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Tony Cooper
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:54 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:18:35 -0700, que.sara.saraDELETE@gmail.com
(Sara Lorimer) wrote:
| Quote: | Tony Cooper <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 15:02:28 +0000 (UTC), Areff <me@privacy.net
wrote:
Andrew Gwilliam wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:38:10 -0700, John Dawkins wrote:
In article <4268fd60$0$38044$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>,
Andrew Gwilliam <bottomless_pit@southernskies.co.uk> wrote:
Is "bedsit" used in AmE?
No. (What does it mean?)
It's a very small flat that, aside from a kitchen (or kitchen area) and a
bathroom, only has one room. It's short for bed-sitting room (because it
combines the functions of a bedroom and a sitting room).
Corresponding terms in AmE include "studio" and "efficiency".
I dunno about that. There's a "cheap accommodation" connotation to
"bedsit" that isn't present in "studio" or "efficiency".
Also "studio" doesn't imply "soon to be the victim in a murder mystery"
the same way "bedsit" does.
|
Ah, yes, but it's required for the person in the bedsit who will soon
be involved in a murder mystery to have an aunt. Aunts are the ones
that involve people in situations where they are either killed or
accused of killing someone else.
I can't recall a murder mystery where someone's mother called them and
asked them to come up and check into some strange doings at the
vicar's manse. It's always some old pussy of an Aunt.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Areff
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:58 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
Pat Durkin wrote:
| Quote: | I don't have a person with initials "SL" in my version of this thread (in
AUE), so I don't have another context for my interpretation of your
description of a(n) SRO: very low class, cash rent by the day and usually
not long term residence--flophouse.
|
Historically, at least, didn't "flophouse" refer to a place that had one
room with lots of people paying to sleep there -- something like a
non-free for-profit private homeless shelter, as it were -- a bit along
the lines of a dormitory in the older sense, or a pre-hippie version
of those youth hostel things that shorts-clad Danish Venture Scouts love
so much?
Is an SRO single-person, single-room (no amenities)? I suppose that is
what I've assumed -- a rooming house IOW.
--
I'm comparatively normal for a guy raised in Brooklyn.
- Alvy Singer |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Areff
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:00 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
Charles Riggs wrote:
| Quote: | On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:16:25 +0100, "Laura F. Spira"
laura@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
If I read a line in the beginning of a book that
reads: "He returned to his bedsit and sat down to write his mother."
I start picturing the character as a person with a low income. If the
line reads "He returned to his studio apartment and sat down to write
his mother.", I start imagining the person as at least somewhat
affluent.
If I read your first example, I picture "he" as an American living in
the UK: in BrE he would write *to* his mother.
Please take into consideration that Coop writes in TCE, as he must.
This American wrote *to* his mother, as well, as most Americans would,
I believe.
|
[A[AI believe that Chuck is correct here. TCE is not the only AmE dialect
that sanctions and countenances "write one's mother", but it's far less
common than speakers of OmrudE and the like seem to think.
I assume that even BrE speakers, yea, even our Ron, would say "write you a
letter" -- or no?
--
I'm comparatively normal for a guy raised in Brooklyn.
- Alvy Singer |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Andrew Gwilliam
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:10 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:01:34 +0000 (UTC), Areff wrote:
| Quote: | Andrew Gwilliam wrote:
Incidentally, AusE also has "unit", which is approximately equivalent to
BrE "purpose-built flat".
"Unit" is used to mean "apartment" in some AmE contexts. I think it's
generally a way of avoiding the term "apartment".
|
"Unit" always implies "box-shaped" to me, but I don't know if that's shared
by native AusE-speakers. I've never heard it being used in BrE.
I doubt that any BrE speaker would fail to understand "apartment", even
though only a tiny minority would use it themselves (and that's only a
recent development).
--
Andrew Gwilliam
To email me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "silverhelm" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Andrew Gwilliam
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:47 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:45:07 +0000 (UTC), Areff wrote:
| Quote: | Andrew Gwilliam wrote:
[R H Draney:]
Approximate AmE equivalent: "studio apartment"....r
To my BrE ears that sounds like something a yuppie would live in.
[...]
It was the phrase "studio apartment", as distinguished from "studio". But
it could be idiolectal.
They're synonyms.
|
For you. For me, they refer to the same thing, but have different
connotations.
--
Andrew Gwilliam
To email me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "silverhelm" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pat Durkin
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:54 pm
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
"Laura F. Spira" <laura@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote in message
news:d4b38q$7d1$1@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
| Quote: | Andrew Gwilliam wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 15:23:28 +0100, Mike Lyle wrote:
"Rooms", of course, is pretty well obsolete for most people now. It's
fully a "set of rooms", always-ish abbreviated to "set", and really
means only a "flat"; it's now used only by certain people in certain
contexts, typically in universities or some of the harder-to-come-by
blocks in London. I've caught myself once or twice calling my
daughter's flat her "set" for some reason; but I doubt if many would
have understood me.
Perhaps that's "sett"?
I really don't think you ought to badger Mr Lyle.
Right. After all, he isn't from Wisconsin. |
(pardon the local reference) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:32 am
Post subject: Re: "apartments" in England and the Vatican |
|
|
SL>Argh -- there's a term on the tip of my fingers, but I can't quite
SL>think of it. SRO?
Single Room Occupancy.
My great uncle lived in one for a time. My impression was that it was
full of poor old men with failing health, both physical and mental.
Huck''Itume |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| |
FAQ
Memberlist
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in