Dennis RomeroIf you were to guess the most-searched words by Angelenos at dictionary.com, stereotypes might lead you to fake, suntan and shopping.
But no. The folks at the site compiled lists of its 10 most popular word or term searches for America's biggest cities. Top nationally searched words were omitted so that we could get a better sense of language that distinguishes each metropolis.
Frankly, many of the results are odd:
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New York's most popular look-up, for example, is precipitin test. Memphis got subordinate conjunction. San Diegans type in iodophor.
But L.A.'s most popular dictionary.com search term will surely leave you scratching your head. It's walking stick.
That's just bizarre, considering that we don't have a reputation for walking, and our retirement communities aren't exactly dominant, as they are in some parts of Florida.
Here's L.A.'s top 10:
Credit: dictionary.com
The 70 million – user site says it looked at user data from February and March to come up with its lists. Dictionary.com explains:
We looked at all words people were searching for in the U.S. for the months of February and March of this year, and then looked at the words people were searching in major U.S. cities to compare those words to the national averages.
A spokesman for the site acknowledged our strange top result:
Los Angeles, a town geared toward automotive transportation, must have some serious ambulatory aspirations with “walking stick” coming out on the top of the city's list of most-looked up words – 15 times more than the national average that the word was looked up on Dictionary.com. However, Los Angelinos [sic] proved very goal-oriented with words like “mission,” “achieve,” “consequence” also making the list.
Credit: dictionary.com
Dictionary.com wonders why walking stick is No. 1, and it wants you to help it crowdsource the answer. Maybe flash mobs are using them to beat on each other.
The definition of walking stick, by the way, is:
A stick held in the hand and used to help support oneself while walking.
Now do yourselves a favor, Angelenos: Look up cooler words so we don't have to be so embarrassed by this list next year. Surfing, biotechnology and Pilates would all do just fine.
Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Dennis Romero on Twitter at @dennisjromero. Follow LA Weekly News on Twitter at @laweeklynews.
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