the.com/northwest
The direction people move to escape rent, then complain about the rain.
means The compass direction exactly between north and west, and shorthand for the damp, mountain-and-coffee corner of a country people flee to for cheaper rent.
from A straightforward compound of 'north' and 'west,' stitched together in Old English navigation-speak to name the bearing halfway between the two — no myth to it, just sailors and surveyors needing a word for the in-between direction before compasses got fancy.
- compass bearing
- exactly 315 degrees on a compass
- cultural shorthand
- usually means Seattle, Portland, flannel, espresso
- midpoint myth
- not actually between north and west equally everywhere
- US regionalism
- Pacific Northwest excludes most actual northwestern states