Flats, not apartments

Gaspode

I recently referred to a development beside us as 'the flats' and one of the residents of these dog-boxes was highly insulted.
Whats the problem, if they're flats in Ballymun and O'Devaney Gardens, etc., why should they be called apartments elsewhere? snobbery?

bennyx_o

I just had a discussion with my mom about this and she seems to think they should be called apartments and not flats, but I'm flabbergasted as to why. She still refers to them as flats in Ballymun. Flats/apartments, all the same to me.

Zulu

I live in a flat roysh and it cost a fu(kin fortune. We're talking the GDP of a south american country.
The pleb you refer to clearly has issues of the scobe-wannabe type. Was it wearing Burbury perhaps?

Terrontress

Of course they are flats. And I live in a 2 bedroom newly built flat. Apartment is just an anglicanisation of the French word for flat!

biko

Apartment comes from French but where does flats stem from?
Divis flats aren't exactly flat

Newaglish

Both words mean the same thing! I'd never say "flat" though, it sounds like some sort of slang word for apartment.

Not that there's anything wrong with slang words!

monkey tennis

deswalsh wrote:

why should they be called apartments elsewhere? snobbery?

Precisely. What were previously known as 'flats' swiftly became 'apartments' about the same time as the Irish population started drinking half-caf mochachinos and eating paninis.

Revelation Joe

Why call them apartments when they're all stuck together?
They're not apart at all!

Ruu_Old

bennyx_o wrote:

I just had a discussion with my mom about this and she seems to think they should be called apartments and not flats, but I'm flabbergasted as to why. She still refers to them as flats in Ballymun. Flats/apartments, all the same to me.

Mom? You mean mammy, yes?

Zulu

Joking aside...
Actually people, flats were what we had in Ireland up until reciently. An big old house would be divided up into bedsits/flats.
Then ballymun etc. get built, and sure, we didn't know any better so we called them flats also. They are appartments. In England, rich people live in "flats" off slone square and chelsey - call them appartments at your peril!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I thought apartments came into the vocab through american television

Gaspode

Zulu wrote:

Joking aside...
Actually people, flats were what we had in Ireland up until reciently. An big old house would be divided up into bedsits/flats.
Then ballymun etc. get built, and sure, we didn't know any better so we called them flats also. They are appartments. In England, rich people live in "flats" off slone square and chelsey - call them appartments at your peril!

So snobbery it is so!

MooseJam

i would have thought flats = poor apartments = well to do

bennyx_o

Ruu wrote:

Mom? You mean mammy, yes?

Yep, my mommie.

TheIrishGrover

Like,about 60 grand and an even Dublin postal area. Don' chew knew this? Like, get it together roysh!

TheIrishGrover

Revelation Joe wrote:

Why call them apartments when they're all stuck together?
They're not apart at all!

Don't know if you need a slap or a pint for that one.

gurramok

The BBC in their news reports call all the apartments(rich and poor) we would refer to as flats.

They were always known as flats to ordinary janes and joes

Because they bought/rented an apartment. It sounds better, so the estate agent/whoever obviously said apartment. Hell, if the word's longer it must be better!

keefg

I think that apartments is just an adopted term brought in by estate agents to increase the selling prices.

I used to work with a girl who lived in one of those funny looking "apartments" in Cherry Orchard / Ballyfermot. She was such a snob that she refused to admit that she lived in Ballyfermot and claimed that they were part of Clondalkin (not much of an improvement in my book).

I laughed my butt of one day in work when she was on the phone to someone and gave here address as .....Number 123 (or whatever it was) Cherry Orchard road, Clondalkin, Dublin 10.....

Last time I looked Dublin 10 was Ballyfermot and Clondalkin was D22.

She used to say that it was only a temp address and her reall ambition was to get enough money together to move somewhere in D12 LMAO!!!

The snobery of some people over Dublin areas and the whole flats vs apartments thing just kills me

Terry

I thought it wouldn't have mattered. It's all South Dublin after all.

matrim

I always thought it was a flat = a converted house, apartment = purpose build

nesf

matrim wrote:

I always thought it was a flat = a converted house, apartment = purpose build

The words are synonyms essentially. Flats is more "old fashioned" in that the American word apartment came in later afaik.


The whole "block of flats" snobbery is a left over from council builds which were poorly built etc as far as I can make out.

Kernel32

It was a flat when I was a kid. It became apartment with the americanization of everything. Based on what has happened in America they will be all called Condo's in 10 years. That's what happening here. People aren't renting or buying apartments anymore, they are condo's.

Colonel Sanders

Mordeth wrote:

I thought apartments came into the vocab through american television

Yeah thats what I thought too, altho recently (as has been stated above) the word flat has been replaced by apartments thro snobbery as well. People are well able to refer to the Ballymun Flats but they all live in apartments themselves.

Zulu

matrim wrote:

I always thought it was a flat = a converted house, apartment = purpose build

correct

Gaspode

matrim wrote:

I always thought it was a flat = a converted house, apartment = purpose build

Incorrect.
That rule of thumb doesnt explain why Ballymun has flats since they were purpose built.

When I was young there were privaely built flats in clontarf and sandymount that the residents I knew referred to as flats. They now insist they are aparatments, so as far as I'm concerned it is only snobbery that has introduced the term apartment into our vocabulary.

Since the incident with my new neighbour (not now likely to be my new friend) I take great pleasure in referring to the new development as 'the flats'.
Its the little things in life that make it so worthwhile.

jimmycrackcorm

Flats are for students, apartments are for working people who have their won money to spend on things other than beer (or including) to put in them.

CantGetNoSleep

students live in gafs or pads not flats

Ishmael

Lol, "Pad", thats worse than apartment. It makes me instantly think of the stereotypical sleazy American guy who invites chicks back to his Pad.

In Fairness though, if anyone gets that uptight about whether people call their place a flat or an apartment, then thats probably the least of their problems.

Zulu

deswalsh wrote:

Incorrect.

You're wrong.

That rule of thumb doesnt explain why Ballymun has flats since they were purpose built.

Since when have irish people cared about the correct usage of words/language?

so as far as I'm concerned it is only snobbery that has introduced the term apartment into our vocabulary....I take great pleasure in referring to the new development as 'the flats'. Its the little things in life that make it so worthwhile.

...by all means enjoy rising your neighbour, but you should consider the following:
A snob is:
One who tends to patronize, rebuff, or ignore people regarded as social inferiors and imitate, admire, or seek association with people regarded as social superiors.

One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect.


Food for taught

Dreamer 7

I always thought that flats had external stairs and balconies and were not protected by an entrance door with code, to me if ur stairs and landings are internal you are in an apartment and if not ur in a flat???