A little while ago, one of my new blogging friends left a comment where she said “woot!” to express her excitement about something. I thought it sounded really cute and I had never seen or heard it before.
When I asked Dan how I would use that in a sentence, like “Woot! That’s awesome news,” he laughed and said it was a commonly used hacker term…….but that he’d never actually heard someone say it out loud before.
Definition from UrbanDictionary.com:
Woot originated as a hacker term for root (or administrative) access to a computer. However, with the term as coincides with the gamer term, “w00t”.”w00t” was originally an trunicated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for “Wow, loot!” Thus the term passed into the net-culture where it thrived in video game communities and lost its original meaning and is used simply as a term of excitement.
“I defeated the dark sorcerer! Woot!”
This got me to thinking about all the acronyms I’ve learned since I first ventured into a chat room my freshman year of college. (My chat room days came to a quick end when a couple of my roommates started icky chat romances with supposedly married men and I realized Iād rather hang out with real friends than make fake friends on the internet. No offense. I really like you guys.)
I remember the first time someone typed “LOL” and I could just picture them with their tongue lolling out of there mouth. Lol? What’s lol and why are you telling me about it? Sicko! I was only trying to make a joke.
Somehow I figured that one out and started using it myself.
Now that I find myself wanting to say “WOOT!” when I’m excited, I wonder which will be the next internet acronym to make it into my already lazy spoken English.
BRB / Be Right Back – [berb]
“Hold on a sec Dan. Berb.”
BTW / By The Way – [bee-tee-dub-ya]
“Oh, bee-tee-dub-ya, I really like your smurf pajamas.”
CU / See You – [koo]
“Koo in two hours.”
MIL / Mother In Law – [mill]
“My mill makes the best prize salad. Yumm-ers!”
LOL / Laughing Out Loud – [el-o-el]
“Eloel. That is funny.” (said with a completely straight face)
Think of how much time and energy I could save if I didn’t have to actually laugh anymore.
Update – since posting this, Dan has asked me approx 100 times if I have brought the milk in from the milk box. I finally replied, “IITFF!”
Ha HA, computer hacker man. Bet you don’t know THAT one!
And he didn’t. It’s In The Flippin’ Fridge. (sidenote – he only actually asked me twice and the milk was delivered….um….Friday…..morning…..)
UR soooo funny. I
It took me AGES to figure out what LOL was! And there are still quite a few that I am unsure of. What exactly for example is LMAO?
Here’s a dictionary of terms.
You have milk delivery? And a milk box? That is so cool. (TISC!)
I’ve actually said “LOL” out loud in a sentence. My mother is an English teacher is and is mortified at how the Internet is changing our language.
How about TMI (too much information) or FWIW? I have actually used TMI in real life (like when my son was describing the color of his snot— yech!) but FWIW actually takes longer to *say* than ‘for what it’s worth’– I doubt it will ever be more than a written ‘shorthand’.
FWIW
:>)
Mary
Thanks to the message boards, my husband gets called “dh” (which he hates) and every once in awhile I actually call him my “dear husband” which makes me sound about 75 years old at playgroup.
w00t is still the best. But then, dh is a hacker…
first visit, Love your blog. I actually came by way of Alissa.
I really enjoy visiting your blog.
How right you are, I remember first going into chat rooms, and wondering what on earth LOL ment, and what BRB ment. It is too Funny!
I left chat rooms too when people who were married, wanted to flirt with me a happily married woman, and they wouldn’t like it that I wouldn’t play that game. LDS chatrooms to boot!
Thanks for your comment on my blog! You guys will have to teach me the protocol – do I respond to you there? here? do I email you? SO much for us new bloggers to learn! š But in answer to your question, I believe we met four years ago, at the Groundhog’s Day party that Heather just blogged about. I think you were dating DYD at the time? And I’m sure I saw you and probably said hello at Heather and Cody’s reception.
But at the point I’m a BIG fan of your blog, and since you got Heather into blogging, and she got me in, thus, by extension…thanks. š
When I was in college, my friend Anne and I met a guy named Lowell (spelled like the MA town). But Anne, for whatever reason, thought it was spelled L-O-L, and so that’s what we called him ever after.
I always wonder if I would end up calling my blog friends by their blog names if we met in person. And I fear I might.
So darn funny! I think you should make a point to spice up you life by using “woot” at least once per day.
ROFL! Yer such a n00b! and fwiw, w00t! came from my dh… he’s a g4m3r and his email addy involves the word pwndj00…. (owned you… as in, “i owned you”… egads, we’re nerds.
I used woot on a post today, do I get brownie points?
Rofl! (one that I adore. It rolls of the tongue so sleekly!) My husband gets called dh too and his sisters are the sils. And yes, I call them sils. Not to their face though. I wouldn’t want it to be confused with “seals” and have that be the end of my semi-healthy relationship with the ils. “It all started when Emily started that dang blog….”, they’d say.
You know where else they use woot?
Teen Girl Squad. (homestarunner)
And at http://www.woot.com (yes, this is a real site) where each day a single item is offered for sale. Today’s item was the Mark of Fitness WS-820Q Blood Pressure Monitor (already sold out); other recent items have been Pulsar by Seiko Ladies Dress Watch with Swarovski Crystals and Garmin iQue 3600 PDA/GPS Handheld System.
Who knew?
Great idea. I am going to start ams (abbreviating my speech).
It took me FOREVER to figure out what DH, DD, DS all stood for! Even longer to figure out what a SAHM was. I am horrible at figuring out the acronyms. I don’t know why, but in my mind for no reason what so ever, when I see LOL, I think Love You Lots…I am forever correcting myself on that one!
Check this out for the LDS acronyms:
http://www.mormonchic.com/gospel/lds_lingo.asp
well, i’ve heard sahm defined quite rudely over at dooce
but i’ve had to pick up on all of them and just try and guess, sometimes i ask. but i don’t msn, or chat so it’s been a challenge. i wandered over here by way of the bee’s knees.
I haven’t been bored since the day you were born. Thanks for all the laughter, Sweetheart.
That’s good to know about “woot”. I first saw it a month or two ago when I set up my WordPress account. They led me through all the steps, had me test it, and then WordPress’ message said something like “Woot! It works!” Threw me for a loop. Since then I’ve seen it several times.
As for making friends on the internet, my close friends are all in person, of course, but it certainly is a good way to network–especially for an asipiring writer living in a tiny town in the middle of the desert.
Oh, and three cheers for Urban Dictionary.
Thanks for the handy DYM dictionary, the only term I knew before today was LOL.
That is a new one. My hubby and I watch BBC and Britcoms and such. Hubby now picked up the phrase, “Im so f@gged” to mean he is tired. I don’t think about it until he says it in public and people look at him funny.
steph~ That’s where I have heard it! I love Homestarrunner (Insert gratuitous WOOT-ing here)