Fascinating thread! I'm sure that I'll be adding more examples in due course, but I just had to comment on the use of 'quite'. I assume you meant it in the sense that HG Wells uses it? "Yes, quite." That would be seen as archaic in the UK now.
But when we talk of 'quite' as a qualifier, then there's a huge difference. Let's take the sentence I've seen as a comment on fic from time to time:
Quote
Your story was quite good
To my UK-English ears, that sounds like faint praise. The story was okay. It wasn't bad - but not exceptionally good either. If I were marking out of ten, a 'quite good' would get around 5.
I understand that, to an American, 'quite good' actually means 'very good' - am I right? So, to an American, telling someone that their story was quite good is actually high praise.
Okay, a few others:
UK: We're quits. US: we're even
UK: She's been taken to hospital; US: She's been taken to the hospital.
UK: "Can I top up your glass?" US: "Can I top off your glass?"
Oh, and there's momentarily. I used to roll my eyes at the announcements in Disneyworld that the next tram would be along 'momentarily' - did they really mean that it would be there for only a moment? That wouldn't leave enough time for anyone to board!
