I Wonder How Many Comments On This Post Will Be “w00t.”
Did you hear?! w00t has been named the word of the year by Merriam-Webster! I wish I had some sort of short exclamation I could use to express my joy! Oh wait, I know: HOORAY!
As a side note, this marks the first time a word comprised partly of numbers (the O’s are traditionally zeros) has been put into the Dictionary since 2003’s inclusion of “Sk8r Boi.” The Definition? “(N.)-One who wasn’t good enough for her / But now he’s a superstar / Slammin’ on his guitar / Does her pretty face see what he’s worth?”
In all seriousness, I’ve got to say this is something of a troubling sign. I’m all for gamer slang; anything that keeps a barrier of understanding between them and me is all right in my book. But the fact that it’s gaining mainstream acceptance gives the linguophile in me a shiver of fear, and a vision of a day when l33t is the U.S.’s official language.
To be fair, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is chosen by Internet ballot, so it makes sense we’d be seeing things like “truthiness” and “blog” start making the rounds. But is that really what we want? Do we really want the same folks who create entire online encyclopedias just to chronicle their “hilarious” labyrinthine subculture deciding the direction the English language is going in?
And by “hilarious,” I mean roflcopter lolcat zomg kekeke!!!1!!one!!I’m hilarious!!!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in a world where when I drop a bag of groceries while walking home from the store, there are good odds that someone walking by will mutter “you just got RickRoll’d.” Sure, it sounds cool now, but trust me; it’d get old REAL quick.
To that end, I hereby nominate a word of my own creation for the 2008 word of the year:
Roflrift-(N.) The point in human history at which language becomes so fractured by subculture slang and the rapid invention of new words that no human being is capable of communicating intelligibly with another, and the world is thrown violently back into the Dark Ages.
And believe me, The Roflrift is coming.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
w00t w00t
December 13th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I learn me all my slang from Teen Girl Squad.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
W00t! Preach on, my wordy man-crush, preach on.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
This is why I use the Oxford English Dictionary. Although, ironically, I can’t seem to find sufficient words in it to adequately express my disdain. B0ll0x.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Fucking awful. I agree with the author on this one. Can this dictionary even be considered academic anymore? Are we dumbing the dictionary down or is it dumbing us down with the inclusion of this word? Fuck it, i give up. Here I come sweet, sweet alcohol induced coma.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
The inclusion of that word implies that anyone who uses it is worth appeasing (they’re not). If lots and lots of people are total morons speaking their special Moronese, all that means is a lot of total morons.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
w00t.
That’s three w00t containing comments right there, since you seem to be counting.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I think the title of this post should be ‘I Wonder How Many Comments On This Post Will Be “w00t” Before Somebody Starts Shooting.’
December 13th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
At the risk of leaving a legitimate post on Cracked … take a look at previous versions of any dictionary you consider “academic” enough for you. Every year the list of words grows, in fact one could even argue that any living language must evolve, adapt and change. To use a tired example of this look up the number words introduced into the language by the Bard.
Generally speaking the only time you’ll have a “finalized” unchanging static language is when it is no longer spoken. The inclusion of Doh, or w00t will not destroy anything. These words will enjoy their time in our lexicon and then be forgotten as many before them.
December 13th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Yeah, I thought about that as I wrote the post and arrived at my intransigent opinion. I guess my counter-argument would be that the method by which language continues to evolve is that some words are favored, and others not. So you can’t really say I’m not embracing the selection process by declaring my disdain for a word. I’m doing my best to aid it by pushing it in the direction I’d like to see it go. Consider me Natural Selection. Does that do anything to sway you?
But yes, I DID conveniently fail to mention Shakespeare and/or ebonics when making my blanket judgments. And I knew someone would probably call me on it.
December 13th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
In fairness, though, Shakespeare at least stuck to letters of the alphabet and modelled his words around an acceptable vowel-consonant ratio.
December 13th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
allow me to paraphrase the lengthy comments by rgosal and mr. swaim: “w00t”
pwned!
December 13th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
God bless Left Hook for shilling Teen Girl Squad.
It’s wiggidy whack.
December 13th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
w00t!
god i’m clever.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I laughed when I read an article on this today:
“Merriam-Webster President John Morse said “w00t” reflected the growing use of numeric keyboards to type words.
“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.”
What?? You’re still hitting the exact number of keys! How is that “more efficient” than using actual letters? Oh great, the president of the dictionary is a 4chan user.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Everyone turn to number 473 in their hymnals
W000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000t!!!!
the pwnsomeness is awesome
December 14th, 2007 at 12:34 am
I thought Webster and Merriam were supposed to protect the English language not put crap words in the dicitonary. How long did it take ain’t to get in there.
December 14th, 2007 at 4:17 am
up till now i thought Michael Swain sucked, but this post was fucking great
December 14th, 2007 at 9:17 am
The way I see it, you can accept it or be p0wn3d. Roflcers of the Lawl will soon be walking the streets prohibiting usage of previous words used for enjoyment like “yay” and “horray.” They will p0wn you at a simple utterance of any other words. You will be forced to learn to speak 1337 back to the Roflcers when they ax you a question as to not be p0wn3d like Rodney King with a “baka” stick. Anime and J-pop will play 24-7 on the radio, and there will be no escape!!!!!!!!!11111111111!!!!one1111!!!!
l|= `|0|_| (4|\| |-34o| 7|-|15 `|0|_| 4|-3 1337
December 14th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Ugh, how long before “1337″ speak starts being recognized? Do we really need to encourage the people who can’t be bothered to type those two or three extra letters in each word?
There is an upside to woot, however…
http://www.woot.com
http://wine.woot.com
http://shirt.woot.com
http://sellout.woot.com
December 14th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Dictionaries aren’t meant protect the language, they’re meant to reflect it. What use is a reference book filled with words that no one actually uses? How helpful is that? If you’re going to freak out any time someone adds a new word to the lexicon, prepare to be permanently freaked out. That’s the nature of language. Young people will always strive to put their stamp on it, old people will always try to cling to the things they consider to be correct. Just because you think w00t! is stupid (which, let’s face it…) doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be documented all the same.
I don’t particularly like the shift that’s taken place, either, but ignoring it won’t make it go away. It will evolve without our permission anyway. Might as well try to understand it if we can.
Also: boobies.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:51 am
That’s what happens when you allow democracy to meddle in everything. If it rarely works at electing good leaders, how can anyone expect it to pick actual words as ‘Word of the Year’?
December 14th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Dictionaries are supposed to be conservative. They reflect usage, but they are also supposed to guide usage. The ‘correct’ usage should only be modified when the evidence is overwhelming that literate people are using the word in a different way.
You have to give neologisms and new usages a chance to die off (natural selection, as Swaim said). If you put them in the dictionary too soon, you are interfering with a natural process. For example, the word “radical” has thankfully lost a useless new meaning it almost acquired in the 90s. In contrast, the word awesome has been thoroughly corrupted, which is fine, we need synonyms for ‘great’ and ‘excellent’, and few things are actually awe inspiring, so when we see them we can just use the phrase awe inspiring.
December 14th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
…the key word being ‘literate’. More to the point, you’d surely have to question the purpose of having a dictionary in the first place if it’s willing to include bastardisations of words that are already in it, made up by illiterate morons who can’t be bothered to use it in order to find out how they’re supposed to be spelled. It’s an entirely self-defeating enterprise, isn’t it?
December 14th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Even if w00t does get put into the next edition, it is far from a full on acceptance of l337 speak in mainstream english, and even if every bastardized exclamation does gain common usage, that doesn’t mena it will stay that way. A few years ago “my bad” was included thanks to it’s common use and i haven’t heard anyone use that term since i almost set my brother’s house on fire by shooting of fireworks in his living room.
December 14th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I can’t believe “smell you later” replaced “good bye.”
December 14th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
w00t
December 15th, 2007 at 1:40 am
Clearly, the line in the article stating:
Merriam-Webster said “w00t” hasn’t made it into the dictionary but being chosen as word of the year “just might improve its chances.”
….was glossed over.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
w00t!
December 16th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
well.. face it.. it’s an internet poll.. all of us know that most of those who voted in those polls are most likely be n00bs and lusers.. xD
..
and btw.. after the roflrift, guess it’ll be the day of emoticons.. xD
December 16th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
w00t!
December 16th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
tower of babel!! tower of babel!!! I’m agnostic as shit but this is the tower of babel story from the bible!!!! The one where civilization crumbles due to inability to communicate!!! Yeah, I know, I’m going through it with my girl right now, but… PLEEEEASE try to communicate using the standard rules of English as put forth in all the English classes you were too stoned to pay attention to! Please spell words correctly! PLEEEEASE use correct grammar!!!!! Our language is not subject to interpretation, nor should it ever be. It’s pretty cut and dried. Is it really so much more difficult to spell out some word rather than use an abbreviation invented by a moronic thirteen year old???? What a bunch of crap.
Good Christ, when I grew up, using proper grammar was a sign of good breeding and respect to those around you. Oh, yeah, I forgot, this is the New World Order where everything sucks and everyone’s better than everyone else.
Wtevr.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
And is spell check and reading one’s own shit before one posts it so uncool? What the fuck. Oh sorry, WTF.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:03 am
“Roflcers of the Lawl” is awesome. I am a 31 year old chick who is not into computer/gamer culture in the least (I mean, I got here off the fark.com “Not News” page somehow), but I know COMEDY when I see it. Kudos. Kud0s. W00t.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Thanks, Kari. I’m glad at least a few people enjoy my humor.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:01 am
windows vista academic…
yes indeed……
February 19th, 2008 at 3:42 am
I don’t think that exclamations should even be included. Does anyone need a dictionary to understand “Ow” or “Oh” or even “w00t?”
April 16th, 2008 at 11:45 am
It doesnt matter that w00t was the word of the year. Just watch Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. HTat is a good example of the way people talked around 1990. We dont talk like that now and it was more aminstream then. Once online games such as World of Warcraft and others lose popularity 1337 speak will die with them. The only times it will be used then is when psuedo-hipsters use it while trying to be retro.
May 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
As the president of Merriam-Webster was making his speahc, heres what he was thinking - “How the fuck did w00t end up being word of the year? Whoever decided not to rig these word of the year polls is fired…”
….and w00t!