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December 12, 2007

w00t voted Merriam-Webster word of the year

Merriam Webster: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2007

Reuters: "w00t" crowned word of year by U.S. dictionary

Ars Technica: not amused.

Merriam-Webster asked the Internet, and the Internet chose "w00t," complete with two zeros. Welcome to the wisdom of crowds....

The word is not even included in the print version of the dictionary ("yet"), but that didn't stop voters from flooding the tubes with ballots. Perhaps they were interested only in seeing what sort of unintentional hilarity would result when the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster tried to explain the genesis of w00t to the world at large. If so, their wishes were granted.

"This year's winning word first became popular in competitive online gaming forums as part of what is known as l33t ('leet,' or 'elite') speak-an esoteric computer hacker language in which numbers and symbols are put together to look like letters," said the company. "Although the double 'o' in the word is usually represented by double zeroes, the exclamation is also known to be an acronym for 'we owned the other team'—again stemming from the gaming community."

Guess who's jumping for joy: w00t

It beat out the verb "facebook." I think I prefer the word that placed eighth:

Peck·sniff·ian \pek-ˈsni-fē-ən\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Seth Pecksniff, character in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) by Charles Dickens
Date: 1849

It means "unctuously hypocritical : pharisaical."

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 3:36 AM | Permalink


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