# Only letters are letters! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 19, 2005, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897 "2005-06-19T07:23:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/1 "2005-06-19T07:23:05Z")
$≠S A≠@ 0≠O I pit all of those who use symbols and numbers as letters! “Leet speak” is a lunguage used by the weak. If you spell microsoft like Miscro$oft, stop. You are not being smart, you are being dumb. And sinse this is the Pit, I say “fuck you all!” only letters are letters. * * * Yes I am drunk, thank you for noticing. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/2 "2005-06-19T08:08:02Z")
Let the 1337 speak begin! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/3 "2005-06-19T08:43:11Z")
I pit all of those who use underscores instead of spaces! "\_"≠ " " I say “fuck you” right back. Only spaces are spaces! ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/4 "2005-06-19T08:47:38Z")
MrDibble has a point. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/5 "2005-06-19T12:19:30Z")
If I can’t use symbols for letters, how am I supposed to call someone an a$$h0le in a filtered chatroom? ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/6 "2005-06-19T12:36:10Z")
> [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#): > > $≠S > A≠@ > 0≠O > > I pit all of those who use symbols and numbers as letters! > “Leet speak” is a **lunguage** used by the weak. If you spell microsoft like Miscro$oft, stop. You are not being smart, you are being dumb. > And **sinse** this is the Pit, I say “fuck you all!” only letters are letters. > > * * * > > Yes I am drunk, thank you for noticing. It also helps to use the correct letters when forming words. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/7 "2005-06-19T12:53:40Z")
I confess I am a doofus but I don’t even know what LEET speak means. I was once accused of using it because I said my mother weighed “7 st 3”, evidently that looked leetish. What the fuck is Leet speak? Is it just substituting numbers/symbols for letters or is it something more cryptic? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/8 "2005-06-19T13:13:43Z")
There are a series of symbols that stand for **words** (not letters, as in Leetish) which are legitimate for informal or business English: @ = at $ = dollar(s) % = percent(age) & = and - = and/plus § = section ¢ = cent(s) ¥ = yen(s) ¶ = paragraph ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/9 "2005-06-19T13:46:28Z")
The Master addresses [leetspeek/“l33t5p33k”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030110.html). (He doesn’t get around to addressing why leeters think that speak has two _e_s and no _a_.) _(I’m guessing **calm kiwi** ’s mum weighed 101 lbs., but I don’t know why she didn’t just say 1.01 cwt like everyone else.)_ ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/10 "2005-06-19T13:49:39Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > _(I’m guessing **calm kiwi** ’s mum weighed 101 lbs., but I don’t know why she didn’t just say 1.01 cwt like everyone else.)_ If some of us started referring to our weight in cwt, that’d make it even _more_ depressing … 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/11 "2005-06-19T14:20:07Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > _(I’m guessing **calm kiwi** ’s mum weighed 101 lbs., but I don’t know why she didn’t just say 1.01 cwt like everyone else.)_ Ummm…possibly because I has no idea what ‘cwt’ means. I used St (stones) because that is what I grew up with. I ‘should’ know what my weight is in kg’s but stones and pounds make more sense to me. It is not easy being born in the crossover generation. For me weight only makes sense in st and lb, yet speed only makes sense in k’s. I am the confused generation. Poor, poor me 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/12 "2005-06-19T14:23:39Z")
cwt = hundred weight. As in 100 lbs. Or so I’m guessing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/13 "2005-06-19T14:28:13Z")
Is a ‘lunguage’ something you speak huffily? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/14 "2005-06-19T14:33:50Z")
I had a stone last year. Hurt like hell. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/15 "2005-06-19T14:37:02Z")
> [@Ice Wolf](#): > > cwt = hundred weight. As in 100 lbs. Or so I’m guessing. 🙂 So that is a way people tell their weight? CWT plus 10? or whatever? Bugger that. My mum is 7 st 3, no leet speak invoked. Me…I ain’t telling you that I’m 9 st and a bit. Still no leet speek! ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/16 "2005-06-19T14:37:24Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > I had a stone last year. Hurt like hell. If you had all mine then, it’d be murder. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/17 "2005-06-19T14:38:45Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > I had a stone last year. Hurt like hell. But I bet your stone didn’t weigh a stone! ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/18 "2005-06-19T14:39:51Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > So that is a way people tell their weight? CWT plus 10? or whatever? > > Bugger that. My mum is 7 st 3, no leet speak invoked. > > Me…I ain’t telling you that I’m 9 st and a bit. Still no leet speek! I’ve actually never seen cwt used in terms of human weight. Probably because those of us of the more generously proportioned crowd would start growling, menacingly, if someone started using that instead of stones/pounds (or kilos). ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/19 "2005-06-19T14:48:33Z")
At least you knew what CWT meant. I was guessing it was a new crime show…Crime With Threat, Criminals Want Truth, Crime With Testing. Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897/20 "2005-06-19T14:57:55Z")
When I was a kid, I saw a photo of a prewar (the Great War) aiplane about to carry a woman aloft. She was HUGE. The caption said she weighed 19 stone something. I remember thinking to myself, “Those must be some pretty big stones. She’s HUGE!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-letters-are-letters/308897.md?page=2)