"W00t" is named as Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year

Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to "w00t."

"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.

Merriam-Webster's president, John Morse, said "w00t" was an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.

It's like saying "yay," the dictionary said.

"It shows a really interesting thing that's going on in language. It's a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating electronically with each other," Morse said.

For technophobes, the word also is familiar from the 1990 movie "Pretty Woman," in which Julia Roberts startles her date's upper-crust friends with a hearty "Woot, woot, woot!" at a polo match.

Gamers commonly substitute numbers and symbols for the letters, Morse says, creating what they call "l33t speak" — that's "leet" when spoken, short for "elite" to the rest of the world.

Purists of "l33t speak" often substitute a "7" for the final "t," expressing a "w007" of victory when they defeat an online gaming opponent.

"W00t" was among 20 nominees in a list of the most-searched words in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary and most frequently submitted terms from users of its "open dictionary."

The choice did not make Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, say "w00t."

"It's amusing, but it's limited to a small community and unlikely to spread and unlikely to last," said Metcalf.

"Truthiness" was the word of last year picked by Webster.

Some also-rans in the 2007 list: the use of "facebook" as a verb to signify using the Web site by that name; "blamestorm," a meeting in which mistakes are aired, fingers are pointed and much discomfort is had by all.

当铁杆网络游戏迷们得知《韦氏大词典》 “2007年度词汇”的评选结果时，他们一定会欢呼跃雀——或者更准确的说，他们会说“w00t”。

在《韦氏大词典》（总部位于斯布林菲尔德）“2007年度词汇” 的在线评选中，“w00t”击败其它词汇拔得头筹。“W00t”是字母与数字的“混搭词”，网络游戏玩家在玩得很爽或打败对方时常会说这个词。

《韦氏大词典》总裁约翰•莫斯说，“w00t”一词既新奇，又体现了新技术，无疑是今年年度词汇的最佳选择。

据《韦氏大词典》介绍，“w00t”与“yay”（耶！）有些类似。

莫斯说：“它体现了当今语言发展中一个十分有趣的现象。“W00t”这个词之所以流行，正是因为我们进入了‘电子化交流’时代。”

即使对网络和游戏不感兴趣的人，对“w00t”这个词也不应该陌生。在1990年的影片《风月俏佳人》中，由朱莉娅•罗伯茨饰演的女主角在观看马球比赛时，大喊“woot!woot!woot!”，令她约会对象的那些上层社会朋友惊诧不已。

莫斯说，游戏玩家通常用数字和符号来代替字母。他们创造出了一种“l33t speak”“精英语言”（网络黑话），“l33t”读作“leet”，是elite（精英）一词的缩写。

坚持使用“精英语言”的人常用“7”来替代w00t的最后一个字母“t”，因此他们在游戏中打败对手、获得胜利时常会说“w007”。

“W00t”等20个词入围《韦氏大词典》的年度词汇评选，这些都是韦氏在线词典中查询频率最高、在“开放词典”中用户提交次数最多的词。

但美国方言学会执行秘书长阿兰•麦特卡尔夫得知这一结果后，并没有说“w00t”。

他说：“这个结果很可笑。这个词的使用范围仅限于一小部分人，不可能广泛传播，也不可能一直使用。”

2006年的韦氏年度词汇是“truthiness”。

入围《韦氏大词典》2007年度流行词排行榜的其它一些词汇包括：“facebook”，用作动词，意为“使用Facebook社交网站；“blamestorm”，指的是一种互相指责、互相推卸责任、令所有人都感觉不爽的会议。（译者注：与brainstorm头脑风暴不同，blamestorm指责风暴常在项目失败后举行）