Having purchased the computer game Unreal Tournament 2003, I have played it online quite a bit and have often seen the remark “Woot!” uttered by my digital competitors, usually after some impressive or humorous happening. I assume it is simply a nonsense word that means something along the lines of “Wow!” or “Cool!” or “Whoa! Look at that!”
Is that correct, or is there something more to it? Anybody know where it came from?
Thanks,
RR
It’s w00t (with zeros)
And yes you are right on that it is total nonsense along the lines you mentioned. Sort of like “Yee Haw!!”
As for its origins, it is an expression from “l33t speak” (where l33t means elite)
It’s from back in the days when computer hackers and crackers and users of computer BBS’s invented this sort of new grammar to make themselves feel cool (more or less).
One would boast that he was a “l33t h4x0r” ( == “elite hacker”), and from there an entire lingo was spawned.
I’m sure if you google, you’ll come up with a whole history, etc.
Actually Woot is fairly new, only a couple years old and if I have my sources right it came from everquest.
but yeah its pretty much nonsense celabration. short for I just (KILLED, Got My New, Pulled off something) and I feel Good!
There is an article here that gives quite a bit of detail about what l33t speak is all about:
It gives the following definition of w00t:
'Derived from ‘hoot’, this is defined as ‘yay’, it can be used, for example, upon victory or, possibly, the release and procurement of a new video card.
I’ve seen it used in online Quake games. I think I may have first seen it in late 1997, when I first started playing Quake online.
I’m not sure if it comes from Quake, though hunting around on the net I find a lot of sites that claim that it’s taken from the sound that the quake main character makes when he jumps.
OK, thanks a lot, folks. I’m familiar (sort of) with l33t speak, but I didn’t realize that “w00t” qualified. I hadn’t heard the “Quake jump” theory, either, but, now that you mention it, the sound was sort of “woot”-like.
Anyway, although I think most l33t-speak is pretty stupid, I like w00t.
I think I’ll say it some more:
w00t w00t w00t
RR
The answer I got from a gamer friend of mine, who was into MMORPG’s pretty early on, was that “w00t” originated in Everquest and was short for “wonderful loot.” ie, the monster you just killed gave you some great items.
Dunno how much you trust that source, but he was the first person I heard it from say… 4 years ago.
w00t? R0x0r!
d0 y0u r0x0rs the b0x0rs, or h@x the sl@x?
Waaahahaha!
RR
More on the etymology of ‘woot’ …
I first saw it circa 1992, well before Everquest. It’s entirely possible that it has been appropriated to mean ‘wonderful loot’, but on the MUDs at the time, it was merely an expression of glee, and had zero relation to l33t-speak.
Woot woot!
Just so you know - I have been 'Woot since 1967 - it’s a family nickname. And I think all you folks owe me some major royalties
W00t !!!1!11!!!
I had always heard that w00t was derived from “root.” As in, an exclamation a hacker might utter if they did the ultimate deed and h4x0red root on your box.
These things are always hard to pin down. Thinkgeek.com used to have a w00t mug along with a description that matched mine above. Now, they offer only a T-shirt and the explanation mirrors the others in this thread.
I have no clue. But here’s what Cecil has to say about leetspeak.
I know I heard “woot” years before either Quake2 or Everquest; for some reason I’ve always thought that it was a british youth slang thing, but I can’t remember why.
Here’s a Google Answers thread on it.
I remember hearing it primarily among Aussies that played on a MUD I was on in the late '90s.
This is the first time I can recall seeing someone (other than me) citing Google Answers here. GA could sure use some exposure. Thanx!
I think it’s just a derivation of WHOO! With a “T”
But of course I don’t give a hoot. 