busker

Periphery

Every now and then a word swims into buzz-dom and everyone canes the hell out of it until it ends up meaning what they mis-meant it to.

Periphery seems to be one, with politicians using it to denote countries bordering on Iraq.

In fact, it does *not* refer to neighboring as in across the border but just *within* one's border, as illustrated by the article on Bainbridge's "changing, like every other town on the periphery of a metropolitan area."