What was Portland's Top Word of 2009?
'Tis the season for naming the Word of the Year for the 12 months just concluded. Tweet? Unfriend? They're good ones. But what about here in Portlandia? We need to honor a word of our own.
In years past, we've had "linchpin," but surely by 2009, that one had run its course. Mentor? Groundtruthing? Crowdsourcing? Foreclosure? Patella? Loo? Thumper? Pie-off? Chavez? Pendergraph? Grimwad? Gridlock?
Readers, help us out, please.
| Posted at 4:57 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (37)
Unemployed
Posted by Justin | January 7, 2010 6:01 AM
Soccer
Posted by LucsAdvo | January 7, 2010 6:23 AM
Just free form association here -
unemployed - sheeple - FAIL - stupid - screwed - reverse robinhood - pathetic - duped - bamboozled - sinkhole - quicksand
Just off the top of my head.
Posted by native oregonian | January 7, 2010 6:27 AM
Transparency
Posted by David E Gilmore | January 7, 2010 7:36 AM
HIT squad
Posted by portland native | January 7, 2010 7:55 AM
The one that made me cringe the most was "repurpose." As in, "We're going to take that money and repurpose it."
Posted by Bill McDonald | January 7, 2010 7:55 AM
the silly word "charette"
Posted by kathe w. | January 7, 2010 8:18 AM
FAIL
Posted by mk | January 7, 2010 8:32 AM
"Creepy."
Posted by ecohuman | January 7, 2010 8:41 AM
For the 5th year in a row, it's "sustainable". Outside of "the", and "and", you'll see no other word used more often in ANY city/county/state/metro document or speech. It's awesome* when it's used more than once in a sentence, too.
*awesome = ridiculous
Posted by Larry K | January 7, 2010 8:48 AM
Oh please, it's obviously
Creepy
A bystander when Mayor Creepy wrecked his truck,
"Hey dude, your fly is down and your pants are unbuttoned".
Posted by Ben | January 7, 2010 8:51 AM
pseudoweird
Posted by Bark Munster | January 7, 2010 8:53 AM
"underestimated"
"unexpectedly"
"could" as in "it could bring 10,000 jobs" or "tax revenues could soar"
Posted by got logic? | January 7, 2010 9:09 AM
Foreclosure?!
Posted by Tony | January 7, 2010 9:11 AM
I'm for "sustainable" in this case. It is a word so heavily used, it almost has no meaning. Actually I vote "couplet". It still means something, as in good money slopped into the feed trough of the developer/planner "class" to receive dubious results.
Posted by recovering conservative | January 7, 2010 9:22 AM
Another vote for "sustainable." Yes, it is meaningless and undefined and you can never go wrong saying it in this town.
Posted by dg | January 7, 2010 9:27 AM
Sustainable all the way. It's lost all meaning and is simply just an amorphous buzzword among planny types now.
Posted by Alex L | January 7, 2010 10:15 AM
Oh, the comments about sustainable (which I agree is now a meaningless word) made me think of THE WORD -
ready? wait for it ...
GREEN
Posted by native oregonian | January 7, 2010 10:24 AM
I'd vote: 1) Partnership 2)Sustainable 3) Green
Posted by lw | January 7, 2010 10:35 AM
Hipster
Posted by John Benton | January 7, 2010 10:37 AM
Paulsen
Posted by darrelplant | January 7, 2010 11:07 AM
BREEDLOVE
Posted by mk | January 7, 2010 11:13 AM
I vote for GREEN
Most of you think GREEN initiatives are meant to improve the environment.
Those of us in the know, and JackBog regulars, know that the only thing green about GREEN is the cash they put in their pockets.
Posted by mp97303 | January 7, 2010 11:18 AM
I'm going to vote with native oregonian and mp97303 for "green", as in greenwashing.
Of course "green" has been around for awhile, but it seems like just recently it morphed into a term of parody, cynicism, and manipulation. Witness Wal-Mart trying to placate Sam Adams by claiming they'll use green construction methods to build a store in North Portland. (And yes I know Wal-Mart's been touting its supposed green cred for awhile now, but it seems particularly calculated in this case).
Posted by Eric | January 7, 2010 11:48 AM
I'd like to change my vote..... green
Posted by David E Gilmore | January 7, 2010 12:35 PM
Patella
Posted by Al in SE PDX | January 7, 2010 1:10 PM
I ditto the votes for 'green' and 'sustainable'. I loathe those 2 words. Add 'bike' to list.
Posted by dm | January 7, 2010 1:17 PM
OK, couplet was lame. Sustainable it is.
Posted by recovering conservative | January 7, 2010 6:29 PM
'SETTLEMENT'
Posted by RANZ | January 7, 2010 6:29 PM
Biotech
Posted by Wendy | January 7, 2010 6:31 PM
"conflict of interest"
Posted by godfry | January 7, 2010 6:46 PM
Randyland
Posted by Tricia Knoll | January 7, 2010 7:31 PM
Anarchy.
Posted by john rettig | January 7, 2010 10:58 PM
sustainability (a word for all seasons and no reasons)
YesWeCan (rhymes with 'Pakistan')
stimulus
TARP
H1N1
G3 G4
HD
no
deathpalin
teabagger
birther
ShutTheBeckUp
terrorwist
eCar
Wall-e
Up
anthropogenic
MJ
balloonboy
Tiger (woulds, coulds, and dids)
bailout
falseflag
healthscare
Mossad
Blago
AlFranken (Alf rankin'?)
Trillion (with a 'T')
CalIOU
Copenhagen
tweet
crikey (a word for all reasons when things ain't pleasin')
Posted by Tenskwatawa | January 8, 2010 12:06 AM
Oh. Only connoting Portland? Breedlove.
Posted by Tenskwatawa | January 8, 2010 12:12 AM
Portland - keeping it (weird) "creepy". Cannot think of a better description of the city leadership vacuum.
Posted by genop | January 8, 2010 11:44 AM
"Shovel-ready" and "Sustainability."
Posted by NW Portlander | January 8, 2010 8:36 PM