Merriam-Webster's word of '07

[Dave Monroe]

Merriam-Webster's word of '07: 'w00t'
By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 11, 5:55 PM ET


Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them
to "w00t."

"W00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an
exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the
Springfield-based dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that
best sums up 2007.

Merriam-Webster's president, John Morse, said "w00t" was an ideal
choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.

"It shows a really interesting thing that's going on in language. It's
a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating
electronically with each other," Morse said.

Gamers commonly substitute numbers and symbols for the letters they
resemble, Morse says, creating what they call "l33t speak" — that's
"leet" when spoken, short for "elite" to the rest of the world.

For technophobes, the word also is familiar from the 1990 movie
"Pretty Woman," in which Julia Roberts startles her date's upper-crust
friends with a hearty "Woot, woot, woot!" at a polo match.

Purists of "l33t speak" often substitute a "7" for the final "t,"
expressing a "w007" of victory — an "in your face" of sorts — when
they defeat an online gaming opponent.

"W00t" was among 20 nominees in a list of the most-searched words in
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary and most frequently submitted
terms from users of its "open dictionary."

The choice did not make Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the
American Dialect Society, say "w00t."

"It's amusing, but it's limited to a small community and unlikely to
spread and unlikely to last," said Metcalf, an English professor at
MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill.

The 2006 pick, "truthiness," also has its roots in pop culture. It was
popularized by Comedy Central satirical political commentator Stephen
Colbert.

Some also-rans in the 2007 list: the use of "facebook" as a verb to
signify using the Web site by that name; nuanced terms such as
"quixotic," "hypocrite" and "conundrum"; and "blamestorm," a meeting
in which mistakes are aired, fingers are pointed and much discomfort
is had by all.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_year