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2007 Word of the Year announced

Posted by Michael Gay on December 11, 2007

Any guesses? Merriam-Webster went towards technology this year with their selection.

“W00t,” a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher’s online poll for the word that best sums up 2007, according to an AP article.

The official definition is: expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word “yay”

I’m not sure if l33t really has a place in the dictionary, but I’m sure the online world will love this. I’m still more fond of the 2005 selection of “truthiness.”

http://www.tvbythenumbers.com Bill Gorman

As a recovering WoW addict, I am startled by the extent to which l33t-speak has infected my email/chat/online vocabulary. Thank goodness it’s still absent from my speaking vocabulary.

I have to keep reminding myself that most people do *not* know what FTW! means.
Anonymous

How exactly is this representative of 2007, though?

(It’s not.)
sonof spaam

I would have thought “torture”. Or “waterboarding”. (We sure could use a definition.)
M Gorman

1 c4n’7 b3|13v3 7h47 M1rr14m-W3b573r w3n7 |337-5p34k 0n u5. 1 c4n’7 w417 70 533 7h353 w0rd5 4c7u4||y pr1n73d 1n 4 d1c710n4ry. 17′|| h4pp3n.
http://www.jeremyborger.com/blog WiggyWack

Probably a couple of years late. Maybe it should have been the word of 2003 or 2004, but 2007? Welcome to the present, Merriam-Webster.
Brink

An actual word, not one used by a specific group and which will likely be gone in a few years, would have been more appropriate.