What's This w00t and Why Is It Word of the Year?
Gamers, rejoice! The quintessential l33t-speak shout -- "w00t!" -- has been named the "Word of the Year" by the Merriam-Webster Online Web site. In the somewhat dry language of the company's press release, "w00t" is listed as an interjection, and defined as "expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word 'yay.'"
According to the Merriam-Webster Web site, "w00t" is a transliteration derived an acronym for the phrase "We Owned the Other Team." The innovative spelling, with two zeros in the middle, is derived from a hacker language known as "l33t," in which numbers and symbols are substituted for letters they resemble.
"What's interesting about the selection of w00t is that it is taking language in a new direction," said John Morse, President and Publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., in the company's press release. "Given the inefficiency of texting with a numeric keyboard, people look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A. This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character."
Another explanation, according to some gaming Web sites, is that hackers began developing l33t as a way of making it harder to search for their bulletin board conversations online. Undoubtedly, however, the NSA is hard at work on a real-time l33t translator.
Webster the Revolutionary
Regardless of exactly how "l33t" and "w00t" developed, it is a safe bet that somewhere, Noah Webster is smiling. In 1828, after more than two decades of work, Webster published "An American Dictionary of the English Language," in which he himself revolutionized the spelling of many common words. Among other things, he dropped the "u" in words like "colour," changed "centre" to "center" and "gaol" to "jail," and added words that were uniquely American, such as chowder, hickory, squash, and skunk. Clearly, this was not a man who believed in a static vocabulary.
Despite the historical and linguistic significance of the dictionary, it sold poorly, and Webster finished his life in relative poverty. Following his death, the rights to the Dictionary were acquired by G & C Merriam in Springfield, Massachusetts. More than 160 years later, the company (still based in Springfield) continues to publish updated versions of Webster's groundbreaking work.
Vox Populi
Merriam-Webster named "w00t" as the top word of 2007 after conducting a poll on its m-w.com Web site, in which visitors were asked to choose from a list of twenty words compiled by the company. The words were selected from frequent searches on Merriam-Webster Online and submissions to Merriam-Webster's "Open Dictionary," which enables visitors to submit suggestions for new words. In taking top honors, "w00t" beat out two other well-known recent additions to the English language: "facebook" (which finished #2) and "blamestorm" (which finished #5).
As the winner of the 2007 vote, "w00t" joins a prestigious group of prior winners, including "truthiness" (2006), "integrity" (2005), and "blog" (2004). It will be interesting to see how this Borg of a word influences future votes; perhaps next year's winner will be declared the "M3rr14m-W3b$73r W0rD 0?' 7h3 ￥34r."