Merriam-Webster's 2007 word of the year: w00t

W00t!

That's how I feel about Merriam-Webster's selection of the 2007 word of the year.

Which just happens to be "w00t."

Defined by M-W as "expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word 'yay,'" "w00t" has been one of my favorite words for years.

You have to give the company credit for choosing a word straight out of the l33t- (or "leet" or "elite") speak dictionary, the argot used by geeks of many colors that substitutes numbers like "3" for "e," "7" for "t," "0" for "o," "4" for "a," and so on. Though, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given that a year ago, it chose "truthiness" as its best word of the year.

According to the Associated Press, M-W President John Morse applauded "w00t" as its choice because it "blends whimsy and new technology."

That's because the word, which derives from video game speech, is used as an exclamation of joy, often upon the completion of a task or the besting of an opponent.

For me, it's definitely more about pure enjoyment, and if you read e-mails I write, you'd know that it's a word I probably way overuse.

But now I'm totally vindicated. W00t.

[dburr13]

An oldie

wOOt is so 2004!

[Penguinisto]

Way old...

Heh - try 2001-2002, in the deepest darkest bowels of most
Quake servers. :)

/P

[Feedbacker]

Degradation of the english language

It's a sad day when the language of our society is determined by
the likes of video gamers too lazy to spell correctly. Especially
words containing numbers, in particular replacing the letter e
with 3. That immediately takes me back to kindergarten age
mistakes in spelling. Results from the degenerative hippie
generation and the offspring they raise.

It's not english, it's the mulish laziness and abuse of english. But
hey, anything goes and nothing is held with any kind of respect
nowadays.

[JadedGamer]

And yet not once...

... did you capitalize/capitalise "English" correctly.

As punishment you must figure out how to correctly type "façade" on your keyboard.

[artitumis]

You're right. . .

w00t isn't proper English. In fact, it isn't proper use of any language. It is a term made up by gamers to express joy.

Climb off your soapbox and understand that the "hippie generation" you're blaming this on has nothing to do with the rise of elite speak. And it definitely isn't laziness or abuse.

[aleatory]

Language evolves. Get over it.

Language is the product of the people who speak it. You don't get to dictate what is "right" and "wrong" and what equates to degradation... the people who speak it do. Tough luck.

New words will be created, even if they are a little silly. Even if they replace letters with numbers. Maybe only people "in the know" will understand it, but those people in the discourse community (gaming) understand it just fine. Just because gaming is a discourse community that involves the youth of today doesn't make it any less of a discourse. It's probably one of the most vibrant and intricate discourse communities around today... there's a lot of wordplay, and I think that's a good thing.

Maybe kids are spending a little too much time in their own world of words to pay attention to the "proper" accepted grammar, but whatever. I grew up on the Internet and I turned out just fine. Anyway--language is language, and language has evolved for thousands of years and will continue to do so. It changes with the times whether you like it or not.

[nickmalcolm]

Totally agree

Compare ye olde english to shakespeare to present day texts and you get the picture; language will change to suit the people who use it.

[BarryLeotard]

Are you Serious?

Nobody says w00t anymore it's so old. Good to see the nabs at MW bothered to do no research into the usage or the origins of this word.

Did they Google w00t and used the first match they found?

[rido777]

w00t is junk and so are these internet stereotypes

http://www.stuffmagazine.com/articles/index.aspx?id=2014&src=tstcpu

Check it out...Don't be THAT guy.