Friday, December 14, 2007

This isn't okay with me.


I've just learned Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2007.

WOOT.

That's right, people. Read on:

Merriam-Webster's #1 Word of the Year for 2007 based on votes from visitors to our Web site:

1. w00t (interjection)
expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay"
w00t! I won the contest!


Thousands of you took part in the search for Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007, and the vast majority of you chose a small word that packs a pretty big punch. The word you've selected hasn't found its way into a regular Merriam-Webster dictionary yet—but its inclusion in our online Open Dictionary, along with the top honors it's now been awarded—might just improve its chances. 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. 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.

We've got to get George W. Bush out of office now. Or there will be no end to the murder of the English language.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

yeah, pretty bizarre word.. Was going to use it yesterday at work when I was posting a story on the success of Nintendo's Wii: "Gamers: W00t for the Wii" .. ended up using "Gamers: Wii Likey!!"