A while ago I had an email from someone who plays the puzzles in
Chihuahua books. He said he would like it if the books sold in the UK omitted American words and spelling. I replied that it might be a possibility to have separate British and American editions of the books, but I doubted if I could reliably compile separate word lists. However I pointed out that words that are not well known in all English-speaking countries are generally classed as rare.
As an example, he had mentioned
careen - treated as a common word in Chi puzzles - which he said was an American version of the verb
career. I hadn't previously noticed that these two very similar words could be used in the same way: "the car went careening/careering across the road". Nor had it occurred to me that one of these words is more associated with British English and the other more with American English. But it seems it is so, at least to a certain extent. Corpus searches show
careen used several times more frequently in the US than in Britain, while
careered and
careering are used more often in the UK than in the US.
However I'm not convinced that
careen would be unknown to most speakers of British English. Certainly I, an Australian, know the word. While I was pondering this question I happened to notice the word used twice in a recent Australian novel,
All Our Shimmering Skies, by Trent Dalton. For example:
One buffalo loses its footing in the uneven roadside and careens unstoppably into Greta's door, horns crashing into moving metal.
So I'd be interested in comments about
careen from non-American forumites. Likewise from Americans about verb forms of
career. Obviously
career itself should remain common, for its use meaning a professional life, but
careered and
careering are also common at present.