Tuesday, December 11, 2007

W00t!

Striking a blow for MMORPG players everywhere, the term w00t (or w007) has now officially been entered into the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

For those not in the know, w00t is the l33t speak spelling of the word "woot", which is typically used to indicate either triumph or delight. For example, lets say that I just slayed some elite mob deep in Angmar. To celebrate, I would simply type out "w00t!!!!!!!" to show my satisfaction at a job well done. Or, lets say that I just defeated some jag in a duel. "w00t" would be the appropriate thing to type over his corpse.

As a teacher, this leaves me with something of a quandary. Typically, any use of l33t or texting talk on a paper is an automatic deduction in letter grade and/or an instant rewrite. Now that "w00t" is recognized by Merriam Webster, am I going to have to accept it? I can see it already... "WWII was won by the allies. W00t!!!!".

2 comments:

Toby said...

No, you would not have to accept that. "World War II was won by the allies," is a terrible sentence. Talk about some wicked passive voice. Ouch. Not w00t.

Also, I'll still count w00t as verboten in any paper turned into me!

Anonymous said...

Yeah... That's a terrible sentence for you and I, but after seeing the writing skills of the kids at the school I am at, that would be a godsend...