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"W00t" is named as Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year
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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.
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(Agencies)
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當鐵桿網絡游戲迷們得知《韋氏大詞典》 “2007年度詞匯”的評選結果時，他們一定會歡呼躍雀——或者更準確的說，他們會說“w00t”。
在《韋氏大詞典》（總部位于斯布林菲爾德）“2007年度詞匯” 的在線評選中，“w00t”擊敗其它詞匯拔得頭籌。“W00t”是字母與數字的“混搭詞”，網絡游戲玩家在玩得很爽或打敗對方時常會說這個詞。
《韋氏大詞典》總裁約翰?莫斯說，“w00t”一詞既新奇，又體現了新技術，無疑是今年年度詞匯的最佳選擇。
據《韋氏大詞典》介紹，“w00t”與“yay”（耶！）有些類似。
莫斯說：“它體現了當今語言發展中一個十分有趣的現象。“W00t”這個詞之所以流行，正是因為我們進入了‘電子化交流’時代。”
即使對網絡和游戲不感興趣的人，對“w00t”這個詞也不應該陌生。在1990年的影片《風月俏佳人》中，由朱莉婭?羅伯茨飾演的女主角在觀看馬球比賽時，大喊“woot!woot!woot!”，令她約會對象的那些上層社會朋友驚詫不已。
莫斯說，游戲玩家通常用數字和符號來代替字母。他們創造出了一種“l33t speak”“精英語言”（網絡黑話），“l33t”讀作“leet”，是elite（精英）一詞的縮寫。
堅持使用“精英語言”的人常用“7”來替代w00t的最后一個字母“t”，因此他們在游戲中打敗對手、獲得勝利時常會說“w007”。
“W00t”等20個詞入圍《韋氏大詞典》的年度詞匯評選，這些都是韋氏在線詞典中查詢頻率最高、在“開放詞典”中用戶提交次數最多的詞。
但美國方言學會執行秘書長阿蘭?麥特卡爾夫得知這一結果后，并沒有說“w00t”。
他說：“這個結果很可笑。這個詞的使用范圍僅限于一小部分人，不可能廣泛傳播，也不可能一直使用。”
2006年的韋氏年度詞匯是“truthiness”。
入圍《韋氏大詞典》2007年度流行詞排行榜的其它一些詞匯包括：“facebook”，用作動詞，意為“使用Facebook社交網站；“blamestorm”，指的是一種互相指責、互相推卸責任、令所有人都感覺不爽的會議。（譯者注：與brainstorm頭腦風暴不同，blamestorm指責風暴常在項目失敗后舉行）
（英語點津姍姍編輯）
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