Longtime expat - the English language has moved on without me.

[squishee]

A few changes I have noticed in the past few years, online and in RL:

• Everyday hyperbole. It seems like anything good has to be either amazing or awesome. Is the thing at hand amazing, really?

As in jaw-dropping? Thought not.

See also "totes amazeballs". Is/was it a genuine expression? Has it died a well-deserved death?

• Dropping prepositions with "which". "The town in which I grew up" is now "The town I grew up in".

• When did a "white coffee" become a "flat white" in the UK? I first heard that when travelling Down Under a few years ago.

I could go on. Part rant, part curiosity. Languages change over time, of course, but it seems to be happening so fast.

Is it just me?

I've noticed the dropping of 'of' as in "I can't come to work today because... flu"

Not just you, but language does get mangled evolve.

A flat white isn't a white coffee. It's like a cappucino but with more frothed milk.

Really HeyRoly? Then how is it flat?

And why have people started calling operations "surgeries"?! As in " I have had three surgeries on my foot".

Surely the definition of surgeries is "more than one building containing GPs , nurses, receptionists" etc?

The milk isn't a 'stiff' foam (created by large bubbles of air in the milk) like a cappuccino. In a flat white the milk is steamed till its aerated with fine bubbles giving the drink a silky or velvety texture.