Merriam-Webster, Inc. on Tuesday declared “w00t,” an expression of joy coined by online gamers, as its word of the year for 2007. It was chosen by visitors to its website from 20 of the most frequently looked-up words on the site.
Runner-up was “facebook,” which means to look up people on facebook.com or to add friends to one’s list.
I must say I quite like “woot”. Not that I can ever remember using it, mind, but I like it. I hope that, when 1337 is dead and gone and nobody spells it “w00t”, that “woot” gains its place as a legitimate word, as used by little old ladies and such.
I do that too. Drives the library teenagers nuts. “Yeah, looks like you got pwned.” I pronounce it “p’ned.” Once, when we had some computer trouble in the form of a vile young man, somebody “haxored our boxors, sorry.” Heh.
I’ve gone just a smidge farther than this and gone with the ironic use of “woot.”
Manager: So, the client came back with another 3 pages of changes that are due tomorrow.
Me: Woot.
Actually, this isn’t quite true, since I rarely use it at work (though I do use it this way in the presence of my fellow gaming coworkers), but you get the idea.
So this word was born as a 1337 thing? I had no idea. I always figured it was Midwestern, since I never heard it until I went away to college in Cubbie Country.
I love and use w00t regularly, usually via email and messenger or other typed word, but I’ve used it for a good 8-9 years now. It seems odd to have documented pop culture lagging almost a decade behind you, linguistically speaking.
Along similar lines, the word “fark” was used as a question in the game show Says You this week (for the bluffing round, naturally, for those of you who tune in).