Whilst

Some British use it, some don't--for the same reason why Americans might find it archaic.

An archaic word, still in use in the UK perhaps.

I encounter it a lot in works from the medieval era.

Use it myself on occasion.

Several words are appended with "st."

Hast is another.

It isn't in common usage these days. Pity. It's an attractive word. I like the way it looks on the page.

Whilst is common in my British dialect, in the sense of, He balanced a plate on his head whilst herding cats.

But while could also be used there and I wouldn't notice.

So far, I've never been asked to change my usage in stories. I obviously don't use it when I'm writing Americans.

I have found that in addition to it being common in parts of Britain, there are people in the U.S. who use it because it is non-standard and cute (or something like that). As I understand it, it alomst went completely out of use around the middle of the 20th century, but it has been making a comeback since then. It is interesting that a similar word, "amidst", has been doing just fine alongside the simplified version, "amid".

snowpea said:

Is this a british thing? I've been reading a lot of works that use the word "whilst" and never noticed where the person was from until I read it the other day. Do you guys from the UK use the word whilst instead of while?

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I don't know about the UK, but I think it's making a comeback here (U.S.) I've used it in my writing on rare occasion, more-so in personal written correspondences.

Whilst is just a normal word here, not archaic as it's still in use.

Basically, what Polenth said.

"Whilst" in the narration of an American novel would seem out of place to me.

guttersquid said:

"Whilst" in the narration of an American novel would seem out of place to me.

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For me too, unless it was portrayed as being a quirky part of the point of view character's voice, or unless the story is supposed to take place in a time and place where that usage is common.

I actually have a cousin who likes to say "whilst," and it's just part of who she is. If she were the pov character in a novel I was writing, I'd consider using "whilst," I think. But it might get occasional comments or reactions from other characters when she said it.

I use and say whilst quite a bit. Usually when I'm arguing/rebutting a point, or writing anything formal or business-related. I use 'whilst' if it's beginning a sentence and 'while' if it's anywhere else in the sentence.
(I'm Australian, and we seem to borrow from both US and UK forms of English).

It's very common in UK English. In US English it's rarely used, but I have seen it (and it's jarring when I do).

If you Google while vs whilst, you'll find quite a lot of websites debating whether there's a difference or not. Personally, I just say 'while' for everything because I find 'whilst' quite pretentious.

Twenty-odd years ago I lived for three years in England, and traveled extensively throughout Britain, including a full summer in Glasgow. I had many friends from all over the place, Yorkshire, Devon, the Midlands, Wales, even the Scilly Isles, and from Northern Ireland besides.

I can't recall any of them ever using the word "whilst" in casual conversation. Ever.

It's a Britishism, to be sure, but I wonder if it's not more prone to show up in writing than in conversation.

caw

I think it's a strictly regional thing in the UK, used in South-East England. In my experience, people from Essex and Kent always use it instead of while, and nobody else uses it at all.

I always tell them it's not a word though.

It does sound pretentious, or at least archaic, to an American ear. Some people may use it in the US thinking it is literary or elegant, but the word is not in general use here. The very sound of it, in speech, can create odd juxtapositions, as in "They talked whilst standing at the station." That's a lot of "st."

I am from Wales and I say whilst without even thinking about it.

It's still used regionally in America, primarily in parts of Appalachia, and knowing this can make writing about these parts of the country more believable.