Merriam-Webster selected w00t – an interjection that conveys celebration of an accomplishment, like ‘yippee’ – as its Word of the Year for 2007. The purist part of me feels like this is another sign of the apocalypse. The rest of me is proud of M-W for being creative and open-minded.

It feels like the modern equivalent of Whitman’s barbaric yawp. When anything reminds me of Whitman, that’s a good thing. After M-W posted the award, I realized how much I use w00t in everyday speech, so I’m onboard.

Even though w00t evolved from a hacker-invented language called l33t (pronounced ‘leet’), in my mind I connect it with its evil twin, ‘IM speak’. It’s no secret to people who know me that I despise all the abbreviations used in text messaging. I know writing messages on a microscopic phone keyboard is hard, which is why I don’t bother with it.

When used in e-mail, I think it’s just plain lazy writing. If you type with any real speed, the amount of time you’d save by using it is negligible and hardly worth the hit your credibility as a writer takes from it.

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