flat
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: flăt
ipa: /flæt/
rhymes: -æt
Forms: form: flats
Etymology: From 1795, alteration of Scots flet (“inner part of a house”), from Middle English flet (“dwelling”), from Old English flet, flett (“ground floor, dwelling”), from Proto-Germanic *flatją (“floor”), from Proto-Germanic *flataz (“flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”). Akin to Old Frisian flet, flette (“dwelling, house”). More at flet, flat₁.
Senses: examples: text: The excellence of French flats is so well known in America, that the owner will often refer to his property as "first class French flats."
ref: 1905, Sydney Perks, Residential flats of all classes, including artisans' dwellings: a practical treatise on their planning and arrangement, together with chapters on their history, financial matters, etc.,with numerous illustrations, page 204:
text: A kiss may be grand but it won’t pay the rental on your humble flat or help you at the automat.
ref: 1953 January 1, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”, in My Heart Belongs to Daddy, performed by Marilyn Monroe:
text: [NICELY]When you meet a gent paying all kinds of rent for a flat that could flatten the Taj Mahal. [BOTH]Call it sad, call it funny but it’s better than even money that the guy’s only doing it for some doll.
ref: 1955 November 3, “Guys and Dolls”, in Guys and Dolls (Original Broadway Cast Recording), performed by Stubby Kaye (as Nicely Nicely Johnson) and Johnny Silver (as Benny Southstreet):
text: Fifteen percent of this group said that they were not satisfied with the public housing estates and their HDB^([Singapore Housing & Development Board]) flats (see Tables 11 and 12 respectively).
ref: 1983, Tai Ching Ling, “Relocation and Population Planning: A Study of the Implications of Public Housing and Family Planning in Singapore”, in Wilfredo F. Arce, Gabriel C. Alvarez, editors, Population Change in Southeast Asia, page 184:
text: The Greater London Council formed the Estmanco company to manage a block of 60 council-owned flats. The council entered into an agreement with the company to sell off the flats to owner-occupiers.
ref: 2002, MIchael Ottley, Briefcase on Company Law, page 76:
text: When the Dolphin Square's flats were first offered to the public in 1936, the South Block was still under construction, and the North Block was a building site.
ref: 2014, Terry Gourvish, Dolphin Square: The History of a Unique Building, page 75:
text: Of course, closure of the West station took away the hotel's raison d'être. In May 2012, the local newspaper reported that this historic hotel, by then rated the town's worst (exemplified by its final review: "Please avoid at all costs"), was to be converted into 31 first-time-buyer one-bedroom flats.
ref: 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:
synonyms: word: apartment
glosses: A complete domicile occupying only part of a building, especially one for rent
Derived terms: bachelor flat
block of flats
BTO flat
coldwater flat
flatblock
flatdom
flatette
flathouse
flatless
flatlet
flatmate
flatshare
flatsharer
flatsharing
flattage
flatter
flat-warming
granny flat
microflat
nanoflat
show flat
studio flat