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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)."

5 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. google by superwiz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The only reason google lost is because the criterion was the most "commonly searched for words". If someone can already search, how likely are they to search for "google"?

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  2. Re:a word with numbers in it? by techpawn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I mean, how "correct" are we being with this. I always thought w00t was a l33t thing. I have never seen it used outside of computer geek circles really and it's assumed that j00r sp34k1n6 1|\| l33t s0 7h3 00z 4r3 7h3r3.

    I guess there is some truthiness with how they pick their words though.

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  3. Etymology by Bj�rn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The Etymology according to the wiktionary

    Of uncertain origin; theories include:

    • an acronym from "we own the other team";
    • an onomatopoeia representing the sound of capture sirens from online capture the flag games;
    • a blend of wow and loot;
    • a leetspeak mutation of whoo, what or root;
    • a corruption of root, shouted by hackers when they obtain root-level access in a targeted system.
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  4. Mmmkay... by tomzyk · · Score: 3, Interesting
    From the article:

    Thousands of you took part in the search for Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007, and the vast majority of you chose a small word that packs a pretty big punch. The word you've selected ...
    Um... so this word was selected by a "vast majority" of the "thousands" that participated in selecting the Word of the Year.

    Does anyone else think that this was just a joke played by some highschool kids saying that they own your website? The only reason "pwned" (or any variation of it) wasn't used is because it would be too obvious that scriptkiddies rigged your election.
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  5. Language issues. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Last year I attended a conference. woot.com was one of the sponsors. At the closing ceremony they passed out some swag from that company to the attendees - in a container boldly labeled with the company logo.

    When I got home and she saw it my wife was ROTFL.

    She's one of the couple hundred remaining speakers of the west-coast American Indian trade jargon. And it seems that, in that language, the word for the male organ is (approximately) WOOT-`let.

    Shades of 18th century viagra ads.

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