2009's Most Annoying Words, and Some Keepers

Deploy -- Another term borrowed from one field (the military) and applied to civilian life. A friend who owns a digital sign and kiosk business spends half his life deploying equipment to one city or another. You can try to keep up with kindred expressions, such as "rendezvous at oh-fifteen-hundred," but mil-speak loses its charm faster than a frozen MRE.

Trending -- If you don't tweet, you're probably clueless here. Last week, for example, I learned that the word "BlackBerry" had been trending in Twitter for 15 hours. I figured out its meaning from context, but made the mistake of asking for confirmation. My bad. I had exposed myself as a fusty old newsosaur. No amount of tech- and Twitter-speak could redeem me. If a word or topic is trending, BTW, it means it's currently in the top-10 most searched items in Twitter. A person could just say it that way. But that's so last year.

"Let me be clear" -- One of President Obama's favorite warm-ups packed some heat at one point. No more. I'm still not clear about health care reform.

Whatever -- This dismissive answer/statement isn't new or even new-ish, but does continue to be an equal-opportunity irritant. It topped the list of most annoying words of 2009 in an October poll.

Other expressions that should be packed away with the Christmas ornaments deep in the garage: empowering, Ka-ching, rebranding, diversifying the brand, vis-à-vis, toxic, deliverables, at the end of the day, Debbie Downer, synergy, seminal, the Governator, real time, Namaste, What does that look like?, public discourse, eye candy.

But lest I be called a total fly-over-state Philistine, I do like some semi-trendy expressions. I believe some may hold up in years to come and may even go on to become classics.

Misremembered -- Star pitcher Roger Clemens made the word famous in 2008 when he said, "I think he misremembers," referring to a friend who testified Clemens had used steroids and human growth hormone. "Misrmembered" -- it's short, punchy, memorable, and it gets the job done.

Mission creep -- I find a new use for it every day.

Blah, blah, blah -- The hardest-working three words in the English language.

It's the Cowboy Way, or Cowboy Up -- Part of the unspoken Code of the West, this expression says you won't wienie out.

That's my narrative, and I'm sticking to it.