"A Persistent Desire for Ostensibly Clever Ways to Say Stuff"

"The No. 1 danger is pretentiousness; we all know, and roll our eyes at, chaps who say 'chap' and talk of their time 'at university.' There is a poll at the end of each entry on my blog, asking readers to vote on whether the expression at hand is Perfectly Fine, Borderline or Over the Top. They generally seem to feel (and I agree) that the over the toppest are the Britishisms that have an exact U.S. equivalent: advert, called, bespoke, presenter, chat show, queue, whilst, and full stop, for instance. There exists in our country a perfectly good word for the smaller dish that is consumed before the main dish, and it's appetizer. Starters are for people who wear hunting jackets with Turnbull & Asser ascots, which really isn't appropriate dress at Famous Dave's."

Ben Yagoda in Slate investigates creeping Britishisms in American English.