Merriam-Webster (you know, that dictionary company) announced its word of the year is "w00t." And that sound you now hear is millions of English teachers screaming out in terror. The leading US dictionary
stated that the word is like saying "yay" and was selected after Merriam-Webster website users were invited to vote on 20 words frequently looked-up or submitted by readers. The runner-up word was "facebook" as a verb, which means to add or search for a person on a social networking site.
The etymology of "w00t" is still a little messy. Some say it's a combination of wow and loot, others say it comes from hoot, but the zero replacing the letter o definitely comes from l33t speak. English sticklers can rest easy for now, but the day will come when companies pwn each other in the
Wall Street Journal and someone makes a newb of themselves on the front page of the
New York Times. w00t!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Untamed @ Dec 12th 2007 6:07AM
Obligatory w00t.
xFenixKnightx @ Dec 12th 2007 8:11AM
Good w00t there buddy. Heres mine. One more day of work and Ill be off work for 2 weeks to play ALOT of videogames! WOOOOOOOT!!!
joevill @ Dec 12th 2007 9:19AM
w00t!!!!!
Slaziman (B-B-BRUSHED WITH FAAAAME) @ Dec 12th 2007 6:28AM
I thought it was like Whut?? which is from "what"
madato @ Dec 12th 2007 6:40AM
That's what I thought. I thought it was a whaaaat with 00's being two eyes open wide for surprise.
w00t!
arrrgh @ Dec 12th 2007 10:30AM
that's because that's what it WAS
embassy @ Dec 12th 2007 6:28AM
who on earth would associate "w00t" with "wow" + "loot" ?
wouldnt that define "w00t" as some emphatic exclamation of theft?
so now, everytime i steal something, or see some form of thievery in action, i'll scream "w00t!".
Raikage (ROFLBERRY PWNCAKES Defence Force) @ Dec 12th 2007 2:27PM
For an instant some "certain" knights started screaming "NI!" when I was reading your post...
Mark @ Dec 12th 2007 6:33AM
I always heard it was We Owned the Other Team.
AirIntake @ Dec 12th 2007 9:39AM
shouldn't it be wp0t then for "We pwned the other team"? You know, just to keep l33t speak consistent.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Dec 12th 2007 9:41AM
w00t surfaced before pwned did.
gonk @ Dec 12th 2007 10:30AM
yeah, by a year or so
man we're getting old
zmog @ Dec 12th 2007 11:29AM
yes, "We Own the Other Team" is the correct history.
NATO_Duke @ Dec 12th 2007 11:59AM
Yeah, lets march in the streets until those dictionary guys accept the true roots! (WTF is with the loot idea - that is so weak that its hard to believe someone thought it.)
Its excitement over owning the other team, simple enough. Maybe non-fps folks just can't understand.
Crazy Vincent @ Dec 12th 2007 12:26PM
I'm pretty sure "We Owned the Other Team" is a backronym.
Ted @ Dec 12th 2007 6:35AM
They should add other internet speak words... like lol. That way I can finally just use it in conversations when someone says something that isn't funny enough to actually laugh out loud at but which deserves more than just a smile. Also, leet needs to be put in there.
Actually, a lot of internet words deserve to be put in dictionaries... Just because they aren't used orally doesn't mean they haven't become part of our lexicon.
madato @ Dec 12th 2007 6:46AM
If they use l33t in the definition for w00t it'd be stupid not to have l33t's own definition.
ScottyGEE32 @ Dec 12th 2007 6:51AM
"we owned other team"
ThornedVenom @ Dec 12th 2007 6:57AM
I'd cry "w00t" to express my joy, but I guess that FUCK YEAH is more appropriate.
stubbymonkey @ Dec 12th 2007 7:01AM
Want One Of Those, is how I use it lol.
Mark @ Dec 12th 2007 7:06AM
This breaks my heart.
Literaryhero @ Dec 12th 2007 7:33AM
It all started with the nature boy Rick Flair's WOOOOOOOO! The 't' was just added to the end for aesthetic purposes.
tc @ Dec 12th 2007 7:43AM
they should keep this kind of thing to urbandictionary.com....which incidentally has w00t as the word of the day todat.
Grant Barrett @ Dec 12th 2007 7:47AM
I've posted a look into the origins of the term that debunks the false origin stories about the term and connects it solidly to American pop culture even outside of gaming.
Grant Barrett @ Dec 12th 2007 7:49AM
Sorry, the link is here:
http://dtww.org/woot
zero @ Dec 12th 2007 7:51AM
Worst. Word. Ever.
Savok @ Dec 12th 2007 7:57AM
I always thought English was superior to any other language for it's incredible ability to absorb new words, now... we witness the slow death of a language.
dan stabbingworth @ Dec 12th 2007 1:41PM
In German, they can make up new words all the time by slapping nouns together. For example:
Fussballweltmeisterschaftsqualifikationsspiel
Besides, I believe many European languages like French are much more intricate.
Princess Skittles @ Dec 12th 2007 8:06AM
This is a sad day for the English language.
natureboy46 @ Dec 12th 2007 8:07AM
This is truly a sad day.
ALH @ Dec 12th 2007 8:44AM
nice to see the US dictionary is up to speed with internet speak circa 2002
does anyone actually use 'w00t' anymore?
randomshagz @ Dec 12th 2007 8:47AM
Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it W00t, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.
...I'm sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don't know what it means. I'll be honest, I don't think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Dec 12th 2007 9:01AM
*ultimate facepalm*
Why? No internet speak should ever, ever make it to an actual dictionary.
Wubbytoes @ Dec 12th 2007 9:06AM
The decline of western civilization marches on.
dan s. @ Dec 12th 2007 1:46PM
If anything, this is a forced evolution of the language as the power of the internet weighs on different parts of society. But mostly, the point of this being the word of the year is to show the impact that the internet has had in forcing the evolution of our language.
And to think that this is limited to western society is fairly shortsighted. I'm sure other languages have similar words. Although they probably use w00t as well.
Brian @ Dec 12th 2007 9:36AM
w00t (or formerly just "woot") most certainly does NOT originate in WoW+Loot. Considering I seem to recall using it years before WoW was announced.
Andy S. @ Dec 12th 2007 9:41AM
Anyone ever seen "Idiocracy"? This sort of thing is how we will get from here to there.
AstroZombie @ Dec 12th 2007 10:54AM
It's got what plants crave!
baby sea tuna @ Dec 12th 2007 9:44AM
English language = pwnt.
Almack64 (NOF - Ultrazord) @ Dec 12th 2007 10:01AM
English is going out the crap hole. w00t!!
dan stabbingworth @ Dec 12th 2007 1:48PM
Right, which is why every kid in India and Asia is learning English. Oh wait...
WiNG @ Dec 12th 2007 10:13AM
le w00t
scaught @ Dec 12th 2007 10:17AM
Well, my apologies to the word "cock". There is always next year.
Todd @ Dec 12th 2007 10:23AM
Facebook? Should be MySpace.
makishima @ Dec 12th 2007 10:42AM
I think everyone is missing the inherent good in this as well. Facebook did not get added. I mean really, if they insist on adding a word a year to the dictionary eventually slang is going to make its way in there. Would you all rather have "crunk" or heck while were at it lets just make emoticons words. Common guys. It could be way, way worse. Besides does them adding it force you to use the word or run around and act like a moron shouting w00t everywhere? At the very least I think we can all agree on one thing. Thank god it wasn't "lol".
Ben S @ Dec 12th 2007 11:30AM
Actually, being an avid online gamer since the days of Quake 2, SiN, and such, I believe I know the true origin of this word. When I first started playing online games, everyone would say, "w00p"-- ending with a “p”, not a “t”. I soon realized that it was simply an expression of joy, or pure ownage. Towards the end of an active community in SiN, and towards the start of UT99, w00p slowly got replaced by w00t, which held the exact same meaning.
So for me, the true origin is w00p. So now maybe we need to research on how w00p got started….
Chain @ Dec 12th 2007 11:58AM
I never saw/heard w00p. I recall woot! being used in Quake CTF (Clan JMS!) back in 97, and actively in Counter-Strike in late summer 99. It stood for "We Owned the Other Team" and would be posted at the end of a match. And let me make a recommendation. If your going to boast your online gaming resume, I would remove Quake 2 from it.
*goes back to lurking*
NATO_Duke @ Dec 12th 2007 12:02PM
Ben, that one was a stretch - I have never heard "woop" screamed before. I have played fps in competition for years now, and I agree with the others above - this was from we owned the other team.
GUS @ Dec 12th 2007 11:48AM
That really poses the question of when "\o/" will become a word.
GUS
Psaakyrn @ Dec 12th 2007 12:32PM
When someone conceives of a way to pronounce it.