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Roughly: British "quite" means somewhat. American "quite" means very. A Brit saying a suggestion is "quite good" is actually saying it's not good enough, whe
by Deebster 3mo ago
Roughly:
British "quite" means somewhat.
American "quite" means very.
A Brit saying a suggestion is "quite good" is actually saying it's not good enough, whereas a US listener will think they've been told the opposite.
- drcongo 3mo agoGood lord. I just three finger tapped on the word quite to see what the macOS dictionary says - "to the utmost or most absolute extent or degree; absolutely; completely", although it does offer a second definition "to a certain or fairly significant extent or degree; fairly: it's quite warm outside". For context, I'm British though I have spent a fair amount of time in the states over the years and somehow never picked up this difference.
- phpnode 3mo agoThis is interesting because I assume it has suffered the same linguistic degradation as the word "fine" which in some cases means "of the highest quality" but mostly means "meh". I suspect it comes down to the dialect and social rank of the person saying the sentence. Compare how you would perceive: "You did a fine job" or "It is quite impossible" depending on who was saying it.