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Information Technology News Merriam-Webster users pick w00t as word of the year
Information Technology News Merriam-Webster users pick w00t as word of the year | Merriam-Webster users pick w00t as word of the year |
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| Written by Stephen Withers | |
| Wednesday, 12 December 2007 | |
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Its origin is said to be an acronym for "we owned the other team", but that has the ring of a false etymology. Similarly, the suggestion that replacing letters with numbers (w00t rather than woot) makes it quicker to type on a numeric keypad doesn't hold up as unless a phone is expecting numeric input, it is necessary to press a key more times to register a digit than any of the letters. We are tempted to suggest that the electronic equivalent of ballot-stuffing took place, but back in 2005, w00t managed third place in a Merriam-Webster survey of favourite non-words. It's hard to say whether it really is popular, or if a devoted (and possibly misguided) few went to a lot of trouble. Previous Merriam-Webster words of the year include truthiness, integrity, blog and democracy.
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