Whilst?

I have the feeling it’s much more common and innocuous in Canada-- when I first started marking/ grading university essays up here the first couple of times I ran into it I rolled my eyes. . . then I realized it was happening so frequently that it must be much less strange here and not have the same level of sense of pretension.

I used to use “whilst” in my essays and other writing when i was at university in Australia, and it never occasioned any comment or caused any raised eyebrows.

When i used the word in grad school here in the US, my professor put a line through it and told me it was considered archaic in America.

It definitely seems to be in more common use in Commonwealth countries. Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage says:

Garner says that the same applies to “amongst” and other similar words with -st endings.

Like TheLoadedDog I see a subtle difference between “whilst” and “while”.
I’ve never thought it was odd, or pretentious, and it has never leapt out at me as a strange arachaic word- it’s just a word people use. It’s a little confusing talking to Scots people who use it to mean “until”, but that’s about it.

Why would it seem archaic? It’s archaic in American usage - part of the glorious difference is that we discard words and y’all over in Europe keep 'em, or vice versa. Look at “gotten” - I’ve heard that you guys don’t use that one anymore.

I agree with TLD’s differentiation and would read whilst just as he explains it although I never use it. Get ready for the influx of especial which seems to crop up as some strictly “girly” version of special. Best to be forewarned so you don’t laugh in someone’s face as I have almost done every time I have heard it.

Especially for you, don’t ask.

I’m not sure about British usage, but certain uptight grammarians in Australia frown upon the use of “gotten”. Actually, the same people sometimes go so far as to tell us we should avoid got because it’s a “lazy” word. In fact, I remember when I was ten years old, we were given a lesson in which we were given ten or so sentences containing “got”, and we had to find a replacement word. It was when I came to “I got out of bed” that my ten year-old brain decided the teacher was a fuckwit, and that “got” is a fine and useful word. In fact, so is “gotten”. The Americans were right to hang on to that one. I use it all the time.

Irishgirl, I’ve always liked your posts, but I’m trying especially hard to refrain from pitting you for providing that link. :smiley: Jase and Kyles??? I’d managed to forget about that dark, dark time.

What was the answer? All I can think of is “I rose out of bed”, but to me, that suggests the need of an exorcist.

Well, there wasn’t one. It was some sort of bullshit vocabulary-strengthening exercise, and at ten years old, I couldn’t think of anything either. Then I thought of “I jumped out of bed”, or “I leapt out of bed”, and those struck me, even at the time, as being like something out of some sort of prissy British 1950s childrens book full of rosy-cheeked children off to have “simply wizard adventures, Mumsy”. That’s when I decided it was a crock, and that “got” was quite okay.

Is the use of “gotten” common in Australia or not? Because I’ve heard that it’s not in England, which would suggest to me that it’s probably archaic in Australia as well, but it’s such an ordinary word that it almost blows my mind a bit that it would have disappeared over there.

Brits and Aussies certainly do use “got” more than we do, though. It’s not lazy in the slightest - it’s a basic grammatical word. You might as well say that “is” or “does” is lazy.

I’ll have to get back to you on that as I have no solid data. I know I use the word freely, but without doing research on it, I do think it’s not used a great deal here. Then again, nobody seems to notice or mind when I use it. SHORT ANSWER= To American ears, probably noticeably less used than at home.

Agree totally.

I’d say it hasn’t been common in the past but is becoming more so now in line with the generally increased usage of Americanisms. I never use it myself, basically because throughout my childhood I was taught that it was incorrect.

No data here either apart from myself as a point: gotten feels like a folksy Americanism to me, like ain’t or fixin’s.

Sorry. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. :stuck_out_tongue:
Hope the smiley means I’m forgiven!

Right now, I’m resisting the temptation to link to the lyrics of “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts”…

Here they are, all standing in a row.

Thanks that’s another crime - now I have that running through my head…flick of the wrist…big ones…as big as your head etc

Damn you