Header image of wall of bricks with affixes

Brit-

British.

The first element of British.

Though the abbreviated form Brit for a British person has been known since the beginning of the twentieth century, it was only from the late 1980s that it began to be used in a variety of compound terms relating to aspects of British cultural life, such as Britart, Britculture, Britfashion, Britpop, and Britrock. Terms are often hyphenated, sometimes with the second element capitalised.

Visit Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site for 3000+ articles on English!

Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Your comments are very welcome.