>A check is what you pay your bills with

We pay our bills with cheques too. As a check is what you expect in a check up and a bill is found on a duck we never ever pay checks with bills, so there is a little remaining British influence at work there, I expect.

>A second example is the word AUTOROUTE

I think Autoroute is the main term used in France and is well understood throughout Europe. In Britain we never say highway, instead we say motorway. I think all main roads are technically highways as it is sometimes the Highways department who repair them and there was always Dick Turpin.