I used to work with a girl who'd always recount a heated conversation with the dizzyingly dramatic "so I turned around to him and said... and he turned around to me and said..." and so on. Why all the f*cking turning around!! Stand still will you for Christ's sake?! She also used to start every other sentence with "I'm not being funny, but..." At least that was more often than not factually correct.
When talking about a conversation - "and I was like... and she was like..." instead of "I said... and she said..." Yoof speak - I hate it!
Not only is it a new word but it is named by OED as the word of the year BBC News - 'Selfie' named by Oxford Dictionaries as word of 2013
How reassuring that it is still the Oxford University Press which defines what is and what is not an English word. Dictionaries & Reference - Oxford University Press
At the Post Office I asked questions around postage rates... We discussed issues around insurance... We got advice around our pension... So is it that we're no longer interested in specifics? Why has 'around' so often replaced 'about'? A BBC reporter today said that, "the Minister made a statement around the appointment of the Chairman". Really? Was the Minister being evasive? Why is it never about any more? If you talk around a subject, you're unlikely to find out about it! We talk around an issue to establish peripheral, or background information, or in skirting a sensitive point. Should this thread be merged with 'Grumpy Geezers'?
Recent favourite on television - "she has received some critique..." errr, no - she has received some criticism...
