It's spelled 'minuscule'. With a U.

Yes, there's a coterie in the media that gets over-excited by new usages. For example, in the past a writer might say, "Anne was only eighteen." Now, it has to be, "Anne was just eighteen." To me, that means she's had her birthday recently.

Dots should be used sparingly. When I turn a page and see a swarm of dots, my heart sinks. It looks like amateur day.

Key is a buzzword that irritates me too. Much over-used.

Thanks, Will. I think it's another instance of Brits misunderstanding American idiom and getting it bass-ackward.
Skeet

As a Brit, I'd just say, "on top".

I think the term for this nowadays is 'hypercorrection'.

I notice Tesco using the line, 'Better than half price'. 'Better than' in this sense is an Americanism that (I think) always means 'more than' not 'less than'.
Perhaps Americans will chime in and tell us if I'm talking rubbish or Tesco is.

In general, clearly, foreign singulars and plurals are retained when a word is newly introduced but in time the word is naturalized. Remember, vast swathes of English are foreign words that have been gradually absorbed into the mother tongue.

I'm sorry to hear criteria being used in the singular instead of criterion.
Similarly, 'phenomenon',
Skeet