Merriam-Webster wins the “you’re five years late award”
by MaxPower
For this gem:
'w00t,' an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary. Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said "w00t" - typically spelled with two zeros - reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging. It's like saying "yay," the dictionary said.
Other classic quotes:
"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."
Uh, I don't think 1337 speak is more efficient... different yes, efficient no. You pretty much need the same number of keystrokes.
Online gamers often replace numbers and symbols with letters to form what Merriam-Webster calls an "esoteric computer hacker language" known as "l33t speak." This translates into "leet", which is short for "elite".
Watch out kiddies, now your mom can decipher your code!