w00t! w00t!

w00t is now a real word!

Merriam-Webster has officially added it to the dictionary.

Based on votes from visitors to their Web site, the expression is the #1 Word of the Year for 2007.

w00t (interjection):
expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word “yay”

w00t! I won the contest!

This year’s winning word first became popular in competitive online gaming forums as part of what is known as l33t (“leet,” or “elite”) speak├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥an esoteric computer hacker language in which numbers and symbols are put together to look like letters. Although the double “o” in the word is usually represented by double zeroes, the exclamation is also known to be an acronym for “we owned the other team”├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥again stemming from the gaming community.

Last year’s word of the year?

Truthiness, as coined by Stephen Colbert.