"w00t" coined Word of the Year by M-W

[AnotherHiggins]

pinkgecko let us know in thread1229-1434520 (which was accidentally posted to STC instead of MAI) that w00t (yes - that's spelled with zeros) has been added to the dictionary and named as word of the year.

Merriam-Webster not only included "w00t" in the dictionary, but the publisher announced it was voted in as word of the year. I imagine some of you will be incredibly offended by this

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1155159520071212

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[BobRodes]

I dunno, I think it's kinda l33t. I'll wait for the OED to weigh in, however.

 

[CajunCenturion]

The Oxford Word of the Year for 2007 is "locavore".

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[AnotherHiggins]

At least that's spelled with letters!

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[Skie]

I wonder if X-Box live, World of Warcraft, and other more mainstream online games/gaming services are responsible for it being popular enough to go in the dictionary. w00t has been around for at least a decade in online gaming.

So, the real question is, when will we start seeing tiles of 0s, 1s, 4s, and 7s in Scrabble? Or, am I just going to have to use the blanks for the l33t words as they get added to the dictionary?

 

[columb]

Is it just me or does it look like a rather poor attempt by M-W to be relevant. I can't get past the impression they're trying to be hip, dadio!

Ceci n'est pas une signature
Columb Healy

 

[BobRodes]

Reminds me of 60 year olds in nehru jackets and silk cravats in 1968...

 

[pinkgecko]

They are trying to be hip. From the article:

Visitors to Merriam-Webster's Web site were invited to vote for one of 20 words and phrases culled from the most frequently looked-up words on the site and submitted by readers.

So yes, recognition of w00t came from internet users, who generally know the l33t terminology in higher percentages than non-internet users. It was being "hip,", but I think dictionaries should identify words in common usage, not just "official" words. IMHO, dictionaries are a tool to identify words we don't know, not a tool for scrabble or trivia to see if something is "officially" a word. I want a dictionary to be useful, and that would require embracing many more slang words and including them, so people who don't know the meaning can figure it out instead of just learning it's not a real word.

[blue]When birds fly in the correct formation, they need only exert half the effort. Even in nature, teamwork results in collective laziness.[/blue]

 

[BobRodes]

<w00t has been around for at least a decade in online gaming

Well, that's certainly true, given that the term, spelled with o's instead of zeros of course, has been around since at least the time of Chaucer:

"Whos is that faire child, that stondeth yonder?"
"I noot," quod he, "by God and by Seint John!
A mooder he hath, but fader hath he noon,
That I of woot." ...
...
"But God woot"

Used as an interjection ("know!"), the meaning is roughly a combination of "hey, check this out, dude" and "awesome!"

The term was popular in D&D circles in the 70s, due to the love of rehabilitating archaic terms to provide a level of authenticity to the "olden times" flavor of fantasy roleplaying. So, it's not exactly a word that was coined out of whole cloth by the young and hip in the last 10 years, as many of the young and hip would like to believe. If knowledge of this means that the term falls out of favor ("He said 'woot'! That' is so wannabe"), so be it.

Bob

 

[Skie]

Well, that's certainly true, given that the term, spelled with o's instead of zeros of course, has been around since at least the time of Chaucer:

I searched a little on the internet and most sites indicate that "w00t" ("woot", "whoot") most likely comes from the song "Whoot, There It Is." So Chaucer can have credit for writing it down centuries ago, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find many documented usages of the words "woot", "whoot", and "w00t" before 1993. Perhaps 95 South enjoyed reading Chaucer and/or playing D&D.

 

[xwb]

I find the process of culling words a bit strange. I have an old OED which has en as an alternative spelling for on. Now the only en is the printing term for half an em. The alternative spelling for on has been culled.

 

[stackdump]

"People look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A," he said. "This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character."

Why is spelling with numbers considered to be more efficient? w00t is somehow more efficient than woot?

I can see that with some texting terms where fewer characters can be used, like "l8r" for "later". But substituting numbers for the same number of letters seems pointless. Is it just an issue of our youth 7ry1ng t0 4pp34r cl3v3r?

 

[BobRodes]

<most sites indicate that "w00t" ("woot", "whoot") most likely comes from the song "Whoot, There It Is."

"Most sites"? Not the ones I looked at. I did find a couple, though. If you would like to publish an authoritative summary of your research, however, perhaps I could be swayed.

I saw the word in fantasy comics all the time when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s. You know, the sort of genre were folks would run around saying things like "s'blood" and "by the rood" and of course "woot!".

Furthermore, I heard the word used by D&D players back in the 70s, you know, the guys who got together and rolled all those funny looking dice from time to time before computers could do much more than play the games that led up to "Zork".

I suspect that the indicators on the sites you mention were about 11 or so when "Whoot! there it is" came out (closely followed, of course, by the considerably better known "Whoomp! there it is"--probably the one they actually heard, given the subject matter of the former and the activity of Tipper Gore et al) back in 1993. And I'm sure you'll agree that we have a tendency to assign a more universal significance to the music we listened to as adolescents than it really deserves.

So, I disagree with your assertion that this is a majority opinion, and also that it is a correct opinion, which is easy to do since I saw it around long before the song came out. In any case, you may wish to have a look at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoomp!_(There_It_Is)

if you haven't already. That's the version that most people are familiar with, and much sanitized over the original by 95 South. I suspect that those who realize that the "whoomp" version is a bit of a ripoff of the "whoot" version are few and far between, e. g. I doubt that Dennis Archer was using the "whoot" version at his mayoral victory party in Detroit, given the lyrics. (On the other hand, in an incident that made the news on a slow week, I suspect that a number of young men at the city swimming pool showing loud appreciation for a young woman's derrière most likely were.) My point being that this strikes me as "urban science", which is a subset of urban legend. (I had to explain the term because I just made it up. If this becomes a mainstream term, I'll be interested when I turn 100 to see all the examples of it used to determine where THIS term came from.)

Bob

 

[LizSara]

I searched a little on the internet and most sites indicate that "w00t" ("woot", "whoot") most likely comes from the song "Whoot, There It Is."

and the song is actually called "Whoomp (there it is)"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. ~ Nietzsche"
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[2ffat]

According to ThinkGeek ...

It was a word whose heyday peaked in the late 20th century...

They are restocking up on their 1999 w00t t-shirts.



James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

 

[AnotherHiggins]

and the song is actually called "Whoomp (there it is)"

No, actually there were two songs. "Whoot" was released by 95 South about a month before "whoomp" was released by Tag Team. Tag Team's version is much better known today.

BobRodes covered this in his post dated 16 Dec 07 14:34.

If memory serves, both bands were from the same city and both said that the term came from the local club scene, where men would yell a word (that obviously was hard to understand) when they saw a nice looking woman.

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[Michael52x]

It's a "w00t" point indeed. Silly phrasings garnered from the immature world of gaming should go in a "new age" dictionary for the terminally peckish.

"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97

 

[Skie]

"Most sites"? Not the ones I looked at.

Most sites I viewed from a search of "woot origins". Things like "We Own the Other Team" and "hacker term for 'root'" did show up. I suppose those two would be the most common, but the sites didn't appear to have done any research on other origins. So, I based my opinion on the few sites that appeared to spend some time researching the origin.

I saw the word in fantasy comics all the time when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s.

Furthermore, I heard the word used by D&D players back in the 70s...

I'm not debating whether this happened. I tried to find some reference to fantasy comics or even D&D related magazines where "woot" was printed, but after numerous searches I found nothing.

I guess I just have a hard time believing that "woot", D&D gamer usage coming from a Chaucer origin, took so long to gain traction given the popularity of D&D in the 70s and 80s. Even if it took the internet to bring it to "common" usage, I think we'd have seen it in forums sooner. Perhaps the D&D gamers just needed multiplayer computer gaming to move to servers to spread "woot" to the masses. And, it just happens that this timeframe fits with the release of "$Whoo[tp]!" songs.

 

[BobRodes]

<terminally peckish

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

-Nietzsche

 

[BobRodes]

<I based my opinion on the few sites that appeared to spend some time researching the origin.

Me too.