The word of the year is across. Earlier this month someone on the radio spoke of hospital experiences ‘across the patient journey’. The meaning was ‘throughout’. It is universality that across is now felt to express. A widely favoured, seldom understood figure of speech is across the piece. Proof of the obscurity of its application, even for those who use it, is that they often make it across the piste, as if it came from skiing.
Across is everywhere. In the Independent, Alexander Lebedev wrote about promoting ‘fair journalism across the globe’. One might think it would be round the globe, or perhaps around the globe. There is a difference between round and around. The latter has become more popular under the influence of America, where round is often seen as an abbreviation of around. Even so, Jane Austen, in Emma, wrote around (as an adverb) where we would expect round: ‘They both looked around, and she was obliged to join them.’
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