I’m as guilty as the next chap of appropriating British*6 vocabulary as it amuses me, but a little of that goes a long way, and even I get shirty when it’s overdone. Americans do not live in flats; they live in apartments. When a Brit wears a jumper, it’s a sweater; when an American wears a jumper, it’s one of those invariably unflattering sleeveless smock things (which the Brits might call a pinafore dress). We ride in elevators; they ride in lifts. They pump petrol; we pump gasoline. Our chips come in a bag; their chips are french fries, as in “fish and,” and what we call chips they call
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