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'w00t' Named 2007 Word of the Year

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-waiting-for-slashdotted-as-a-verb dept.

bukharin writes "'w00t', the "small word that packs a pretty big punch", has been named Word of the Year for 2007 by dictionary gurus Merriam-Webster. Visitors to the Merriam-Webster website were asked to vote for one of 20 commonly searched words and phrases. Facebook was the runner-up. Previously honored geek words include google (runner-up in 2006) and blog (winner in 2004)."

7 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Re:00 ok? by CRCulver · · Score: 2, Informative

    Any mainstream lexiconographer will readily admit that his work is descriptive, not prescriptive.

  2. You'd think that... by PinkyDead · · Score: 5, Informative

    Merriam-Webster's word of the year would be in their dictionary.

    http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/w00t. Odd that.

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    Genesis 1:32 And God typed :wq!
    1. Re:You'd think that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      http://www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/newword_search.php?word=w00t&last=0

  3. Re:WTF? by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Informative

    They must just now be discovering Microsoft's leet speak tutorial archives.

    Microsoft got boring though, now that page simply redirects here instead.

    It's interesting to follow the revision histories on that page on archive.org. It started out pretty much as my first link, then they removed the "illegal activities" section probably out of political correctness and not wanting to damage their reputation, and now there's no info on leetspeak at all.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  4. Most of the runner-ups aren't current either by blitzkrieg3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Take a look at words like hypocrite, conundrum, quixotic; none of these words is current. It would appear that voters didn't care if a word was actually USED in 2007, just that they liked the word and thought it deserved mention. Pecksniffian dates as far back as 1894.

  5. Re:That is quite exciting by brenddie · · Score: 1, Informative

    i remember reading it came from loot
    "look loot", "wow loot", "woot", "w00t"

    --
    The best test environment is production. - Me
    chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
  6. Re:Etymology by Indefinite,+Ephemera · · Score: 2, Informative

    'The Lexicographer's Rules' has some comments on the etymology: http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/grantbarrett/the_real_history_and_origin_of_woot_and_w00t/