invite (noun)

Neil W. wrote to ask:I am seeing lots of advertisements for a new film called "The Invite". (Sounds quite promising with Seth Rogen playing his usual character). Here is a review from the notoriously picky Peter Bradshaw, who quite liked it. Within this article he uses the phrase "extend the invitation of the title". So my question: is it an Americanism to use "invite" as a noun? I (Scottish) would certainly only use "the invitation". Or is some subtle difference (invite is by mouth, invitation more formal on paper) being implied?Of course it might be one of those old UK usages that went to America and stayed.Thanks for the question, Neil. And I'm even going to try to be topical and answer it while the film is still in (more BrE) cinemas/(AmE) theaters (in the UK, at least). The Oxford English Dictionary has included the noun invite since its first publication (1900 for this bit of the alphabet), marking it as colloquial and tracing it back as far as 1659: "Bishop Cranmer..gives him…