w00t! Named Word of the Year

[Lemur]

Somehow I don't think this one will be with us a decade from now. "Truthiness" was a much better call.

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."

Thanks, gaming!

Still, it could have been worse; the other nine contenders this year include blamestorm, sardoodledom, and Pecksniffian.

In other news, Roflcopter and lollerskates were shut out. Again.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Why is a word almost as old as some of our younger members the word of 2007?

Why not go for something new and daring?

[Crazed Rabbit]

Clearly, the internets are stupid. Some cholesterol in all those tubes, I think.

CR

[Husar]

Word of the year and all choices are weird.
Somehow looks like a joke but what do we need a word of the year for anyway?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Pffft, so 2004.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Pffft, so 2004.

Agreed.

Wikiality was the better choice.

[CountArach]

Damn it! I had money riding on Pecksniffian.

[Papewaio]

w007 as it can also be written makes a good choice for two007.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
No GAH?!
.

[Whacker]

Can I get a little w00tles up in this piece people??

[Xehh II]

I want to kill whoever decided to make w00t word of the year, it's not even a proper word!

[Lemur]

Neither was "zounds" back in the day, or "strewth." And now all the kids are saying it.

[CountArach]

Can I get a little w00tles up in this piece people??

w00tles!

Neither was "zounds" back in the day, or "strewth." And now all the kids are saying it.

Strewth has actually been a part of Australian vocabulary for a long time.

[edyzmedieval]

W00t doesn't even mean owning the other team. It's a slang from of YEAH!!!. If you want to own, you say 0WND or something like that.

But still, w00t is good, but not for Word of the Year.

[The_Mark]

I'm so going to do this whenever possible.

[Adrian II]

(..) part of what is known as l33t ('leet,' or 'elite') speak (..)

God, they're still there ..

I play some of the crappiest shooters like Rakion and Wolfteam, and pwnage is a rarity there. I saw 'oN4ch' this week, now there's an interjection that might just make it before Christmas.

I'm so going to do this whenever possible.

Lol

[Husar]

Wolfteam

Please, don't say it again, I had a look at the homepage last time you mentioned it and it makes me feel dirty.

[Viking]

W00t.

(It does not look so good with capitalized 'W'; it must be stressed in the dictionary that it can only be spelled with a lower case 'w')

[The Stranger]

bleugh...

[Reverend Joe]

I kinda wanted to set myself on fire after reading that... then I read the webcomic.

Thanks, Mark -- I'm bookmarking that thing. It's freakin' hilarious! "Hey, I found squirrels!"

[Mouzafphaerre]

W00t.

(It does not look so good with capitalized 'W'; it must be stressed in the dictionary that it can only be spelled with a lower case 'w')

.
Alternative spellings exist, albeit locally:

ωοοτ

.

[Lemur]

Strewth has actually been a part of Australian vocabulary for a long time.

Somebody needs to brush up on his Shakespeare. I'm not calling you a puttock or a flirt-gill, but ...