Talk:w00t

Language is Leet, not English
I've changed the language from English to Leet and commented out the category ("English language"). It is debatable whether Leet can be considered part of the English language or even a variety of English. That said, the synonyms given are English. What do others think? &mdash; Paul G 09:14, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * The Wikipedia article on leet describes it thus: "Leet (often Eleet, leetspeak, leetspeek, l33t, ej33t, 31337, or 1337; from "élite") is a cipher, or novel form of English spelling." From what I can make out, this is pretty accurate.  Not surprisingly it also apperas to have some unique features of its own, and because there are I'd say it's also a form of slang.  I would classify W00t as leet slang (note wikification).


 * So then, how do we deal with the combinatorial explosion of spelling variations? I don't think that there will usually be a cononical spelling -- the many-to-one mapping to English is one of its major features.  To fully handle this, the search feature would need a "de-leet" feature to arbitrarily canonicalize anything that looks like leet and offer any results up as an alternatitve.


 * In the likely event that that's way more trouble than it's worth, I would create one main entry for each term under the most "de-leetized" spelling feasible. Mostly that will be a plain English transcription &mdash; as with leet itself &mdash; but in some cases &mdash; w00t for example &mdash; there may be a standard or nearly standard non-standard spelling, and that should be primary.


 * If other spelling variants are fairly frequent &mdash; w007 for example &mdash; they can get their own redirect entries.


 * I think the general idea of a main entry in a neutral spelling or even under an arbitrary tag, with redirects from other spellings, would go a long way toward dealing with words with multiple spellings. It's also part of the overall solution to dealing with cases like color/colour, and I'd like to get that discussion going again (see my Beer Parlour entry from a week or so back). -dmh 11:05, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * The only reason this has any business in Wiktionary at all is that it has passed into general use. As such, it should be marked as English, with Leet mentioned in the etymology. -dmh 15:03, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

THis is so stuiped

 * Okay, i don't get how anyone can not know this, but the defenition of w00t on this page is so horribly wrong. Here's what it really is:

The term w00t comes from the original internet slang term, woot which stands for "We Own the Other Team". Woot, under its current defenition, was often used by a winning team in internet gaming to congratulate each other for their victory, and mock their opponent for their loss. Eventually, people began spelling "woot" as "w00t" as part of the internet "leet" or "1337" speak phenomenon. DurotarLord 15:27, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

And your proof is?--65.182.246.182 00:36, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

"etymology" seems really folksy
too bad the lyrics were "whoomp, there it is!"


 * No, you're thinking of a different song. The "whoot" one is by 95 South. Equinox ◑ 23:09, 4 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The definite origin of the term w00t is only known by its creator "Ninja". One theory claims that usage of this term dates back to the mid-1990's, when it was probably derived from the alternative spellings of whoomp and whoot. These spellings are variously used in the phrases, "Whoomp, there it is," or "Whoot, there it is" from two songs in 1993 from rap groups Tag Team and 95 South, respectively. Another possibility is that it came from the vocalization made by the character in games of the Quake series when a jump is performed; however, as Quake was only first released in 1996, this etymology probably only furthered the popularity of the existing term. Others have theorized the term is an acronym for "We Owned the Other Team", or that "w00t" finds its origin in the sounds of a jubilant Daffy Duck. It has also been alleged that "w00t" is a contraction of the phrase "wonderous loot" used in Ultima Online and Everquest whenever a player found large quantities of treasure although it is uncertain if this is really the case.  W00t is also somewhat like the Scots word "hoots", which is used in a similar manner—an exclamation signifying surprise, disbelief, or kindred reaction. Another supposed origin is as an expression used by a cracker (see security cracking) who has just broken into a computer system, obtaining "root" access: "woot, I have root!"


 * A September 06, 2004 article (free registration required) on AdAge.com indicated that the term comes "from gaming slang—the original use meant 'Wow! Loot' in Dungeons and Dragons play—and is now a common exclamation of excitement in Net culture."


 *  w00t itself was first seen in 1994. The expression rose in popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It has not reached general usage or understanding.

Failed RFV. - TheDaveRoss 07:35, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Etymology again
Some infamous nonsense has made it back into the etymology. It might be worth mentioning "gaming" somewhere, as that is one possible way the term ever became acceptable as an internet interjection (if perhaps initially rejected by other Internet sub-cultures) if such a thing can be proven. But it should be noted that the "w" is not capitalized unless the entire word is (i.e. "W00T" or "W))T".) The lower case "w" is possibly from "root", possibly to emphasize that they are zeros, not the letter "o", (nor evar "O") and possibly a general "Unix"/"*nix" reference. The intentional corruption (compounding three or more "standard English" broken rules) is likely to have gained acceptance only because it so succinctly breaks so many rules for spelling and word-formation. But to suggest that it originated in 'gaming' subculture is absurd. Internet gaming (particularly as we know it today) in 1995 consisted of about three people. C'mon people - even AOL chatrooms predate the concept of playing games with other people over the Internet, especially games that allowed more than two players, where the nonsense etymology purports to come from. --Connel MacKenzie 20:08, 29 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Huh? Earth to Connel? The first MUDs appeared starting in 1977 (before the IP internet of course), but starting about 1984-85 they were running on TCP/IP, tinyMUD is from 1989, and so on. One of the first AOL games (Dragon's gate), was created in 1984. And was on AOL before they had chatrooms. Robert Ullmann 14:54, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Nonsense removed again. --Connel MacKenzie 00:21, 1 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Today it read "shouted out by hackers when they gain root access..." - this sounds like a completely crazy joke to me. I left it, but in a second phrase, and put the "hoot" hypothesis in front, I found that one thrugh several google hits for "w00t, w00t", e.g. http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/gaming/38e7/
 * Also added ext.link to "MW's word of the year 2007" and 2 quotations referring to this and containing the word (which is not the case for MW's headline). &mdash;User:MFH 14:48, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Etymology thrice
In some Dungeons & Dragons circles, it was a common trait to exclaim the phrase 'woot' to entice luck for drops after killing a creature. The term 'woot' derives from the possible drops: weapons and loot, hence woot. This was eventually changed to 'w00t' by overzealous 1337-speakers, and changed to a celebratory phrase in the stead of its origins of luck-charming.

--Twasbrillig 23:14, 3 February 2008

Another possible Etymology
I was involved in the national Academic Decathlon in 1996/1997. There was a reference in one of the subjects to an African fertility god named Woot. For whatever reason, all the people in Academic Decathlon thought this was funny and started saying it to each other. T-shirts were even made. It's quite possible this migrated to the internet; especially since the only people using the internet back then were the cognitive elite - the very same people who were in Academic Decathlon. Scottcmu 16:38, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Yet Another possible Etymology
/me guesses "wut", abbreviated from "what", just became "wooot" or in a more 1337 manner "w00t" told in a state of excitement. The phonation may also conform to some slangs of the english language and words with the same meaning in dialects of other languages.

A gaming Etymology
I believe woot is derived from "wort", "wort" is the laugh of an elite in halo 1 Combat Evolved. Many online multiplayers in halo 2 and 3 use it wort and woot in the same meaning.

Definitely not true. Woot has held its current usage since long before Halo came out. Scottcmu 14:55, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Feedback
w00t originally came from internet team based gaming and stood for, We Owned Other Team.

email me at luciferfok@


 * Disputed etymology. DCDuring TALK 15:51, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

WoW + loot
There is explanation on the main page.. I totally disagree with it.. Woot! what there way before WOW came out...


 * and the word wow: was around long before computer games at all ;) - 22:00, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

''Seconded. I knew this word in Dark Age of Camelot, before WoW had even been mentioned, let alone released.''
 * 212.104.137.245 09:48, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Oooh, so close. I learned that it was "Wow, loot!" Not "W(orld) o(f) W(arcraft) loot!" But "Yay! Loot!" I also learned that it originated in EQ1, released back in '99. I should append that when I learned this, EQ1 was all the rage. This was back when the Planes of Power were still being explored fully, so it was probably in '02 or so. That would put me at... 12 or so at the time. --199.217.32.2 17:07, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

w00t origin
I'm not sure why people feel the need to find meaning in odd things, but is it really so hard to believe that someone who probably said 'woot' in real life then wrote it online with zeroes and it caught on? I find it so incredibly unlikely that someone bothered thinking up something like "wow, there's the loot", it's hilarious. Anyway, some food for thought as to the origin here - http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=w00t&num=10&scoring=d&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_ugroup=&as_usubject=&as_uauthors=&lr=&as_qdr=&as_drrb=b&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=9&as_maxm=5&as_maxy=1996&safe=off. Note the person called "Da W00t". --Vision 17:06, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I'd always thunk that it was pure luck what gave this term popularity. Someone says it, others follow suit... verbal snowball continueth...--Dog brains 19:31, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

A thing worthy of mention
The meaning of "woot" in, for example, World of Warcraft, seems to be the same as "what". I haven't seen it used as a "yay" or any sort of jubilant scream, only as a kind of question, which usually does not even request an answer. -Noname

The similarity between "W00t" and "what" have led to that a lot of people use it in this way even though it actually means something completely different. The only meaning I have ever heard of is "we owned the other team", and I believe that that is the most common use of the word. I do not know if that is the original meaning though... --213.64.41.74 21:58, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

There it is!?
I know this is sourced and everything, but the phrase is "Whoomp! (There it is)", not "whoot". I think the author of that piece was mistaken. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoomp%21_%28There_It_Is%29 75.185.161.15 10:57, 12 June 2008 (UTC)


 * According to the source, both existed. Clearly w00t:, if from either, is from undefined:. However, the undefined: form might bear mention nonetheless. —Ruakh TALK 15:47, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

This word entry is not valid whatsoever
Who is the moron who posted this as a valid entry? Yes "woot" should be here, but not "w00t." "w00t" as other people have pointed out, is a leetspeak representation of the word "woot," meaning that anyone who is writing it that way is NOT IMPLYING THAT THE MIDDLE CHARACTERS ARE ZEROS. The middle characters are indeed, supposed to represent the letter "O" twice, with the letter "O" being represented by a zero in some cases, and the letter "T" being represented by a seven in same cases. However, these are not alternate spellings, these are all the SAME spelling represented by different glyphs. "w00t" can and should redirect to "woot" for easy searching, but it should not be the default document. Otherwise, we would be arbitrarily putting in entries like "\/\/007" as if an alternate spelling for woot, is, in fact "back-slash slash back-slash slash zero zero seven," and that it is not supposed to be read as "W-O-O-T" (which it is).


 * That's an interesting point. I'm not sure if I agree, though, since "w00t" seems to be a bit more popular than "woot" (though it's hard to tell). —Ruakh TALK 19:23, 25 June 2008 (UTC)


 * In thus cases, I think it should be necessary to follow teh guidelines of Merriam-Webster, who made this their word of the year "recently". they spell it as w00t--Dog brains 19:34, 25 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Our attitude about such things is complex. On the one hand, we can't follow any one dictionary too slavishly, because (1) that could verge on copyright violation and (2) there'd be no point to all our efforts if we were just mirroring someone else's; but on the other hand, we try to avoid original research and excessive innovation, because otherwise (1) we'd have no way to resolve disputes and (2) readers would have little reason to trust us. —Ruakh TALK 20:47, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

woohoo misspelled
'whoohoo' is listed as a synonym, but I believe the intended link is woohoo. --Edemaine 18:28, 25 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I believe you're right. I've been bold and fixed it now. :-)  —Ruakh TALK 19:21, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

Origin, kidding, right?
So the actual article says it's "probably" from "WHOOMP there it is!" Please tell me this is a joke and some Wiki grafitti? It's from hacker slang - "Woot, I got root!" or "Woohoo root!" It's not that hard to find documentation on this, including the other Wiki article where there's an entire discussion over woohoo, root vs. the song that's WHOOMP! C'mon.


 * I don't understand. Are you claiming that our entry for woot: "says it's 'probably' from 'WHOOMP there it is!'"? Because in point of fact, our entry does not say that. Neither copying text nor pasting it is difficult on any decent computer system, and I'm sorry, but it's kind of hard to take your comment seriously when it substantively misquotes the claim it purports to disagree with. —Ruakh TALK 23:18, 8 July 2008 (UTC)


 * You're right, it doesn't say "probably" it says "most likely." I'm talking about THIS article, w00t: Let me say again, "most likely from a 1993 dance catch-phrase “whoot, there it is!”"  It's still WRONG.  It doesn't matter if I copy & pasted it - it's a stupid idea that it came from there since a) it was around before the song and b) the popular song was Tag Team's WHOOMP not WHOOT.  So probably or most likely - they're both wrong.


 * I take it you didn't read the linked reference? —Ruakh TALK 04:04, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Origin of Woot (non-acronym)
Woot came from the semi-popular internet RPG: RuneScape Some of the animals and creatures say random quotes every now and then, in a well know discussion it was said that an owl (there is no owl creature) said "woot". Which is just plain wrong, but thats how it came about.

This it the origin for people saying Wooot! when excited, it isnt linked to WOOT, the acronym.


 * I'm sure you're mistaken, since w00t: has been around much longer than RuneScape. —Ruakh TALK 19:17, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Zeroes and not capital letter O
Inspite of all the explanations (conjectures) about the history and etymology of the word "w00t", no one has yet explained why it is spelt "w-0-0-t" and not "w-O-O-t". That is, it is spelt: "double-U, Zero, Zero, tee". Can anyone explain why zeroes are used instead of the letter "O"? --71.146.20.105 21:18, 30 July 2008 (UTC)


 * It's common in "leet" internet slang, See Leet. Conrad.Irwin 21:20, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Step away from the intertubes...
Young ones...

The song was "Whomp there it is..." not "woot there it is..." Why are you allowing a page so full of errors to be presented as factual... and at the same time, have the audacity to lock it to editors who are merely trying to correct your mistakes?

Step away from the intertubes... you have become far too invested in your created reality.

Please change it. It's embarrassing to our nation that people are too lazy to look up information easily accessible on the internet when they are posting things within a site designed for lazy people to look up things on the internet. See the paradox?

Good luck with that...


 * Even if the song is "Whomp there it is...", people may have mistaken the lyrics and sung "woot there it is." It's embarassing to yourself to assume that people don't misunderstand things. After all, how many people think the line in Empire Strikes Back is "Luke, I'm your father," or "Mirror, mirror on the wall" in Snow White, or "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca? People MISQUOTE THINGS very often. It's not a big jump for people to misquote "whomp" to "woot". In any case, I seriously doubt the connection.

"most likely"
There is ZERO evidence that this is the most likely explanation. Please revise. ThunderPeel2001 15:02, 9 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Please read the linked reference. —Ruakh <i >TALK</i > 16:28, 9 December 2008 (UTC)


 * You mean that highly contested third-party research?!


 * Here's legitimate evidence to the contrary: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W00t&oldid=178091785#.27Root.27_Access ThunderPeel2001 11:48, 23 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks! We do mention that possibility in the entry. —Ruakh <i >TALK</i > 21:05, 23 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I realise you mention the "possibility", but you also state "most likely", which is an OPINION, not a fact. ThunderPeel2001 01:52, 24 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It is indeed an opinion. Specifically, it's the opinion of a respected lexicographer (editor of, among others, the Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang), given in a well-researched blog entry devoted entirely to the question. What would you prefer we said? —Ruakh <i >TALK</i > 06:03, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

This edit page is quite funny
I can't believe that people who don't know the origin of replacing o with 0 in l33t speak are making comments on this. I think that at the very least, the popularity of woot came from the gaming community. It was originally woot. The popularity of the word started around 1998-1999 and was a big term among counterstrike players. Those players brought it back to their respective game. Most role playing games claiming that it stands for wow, loot did not even exist while the word was in use in the CS, Quake 2, and Quake 1 chats and forums.

At the time the concept of l33t speak was also spilling into the mainstream. So woot shortly turned into w00t as owned turned into pwned. It is possible that the terms come from similar origins. The woohoo, root is feasible, but seems unlikely. The "we own the other team" abbreviation is possibly but also unlikely as the term seems to predate Counter Strike. The abbreviation theory is also unlikely because at the time internet abbreviations were also becoming main stream, most people didn't even know the meaning of a/s/l and had to ask. Lists of abbreviations at the time never contained woot, and nobody that I ever asked at the time ever used that abbreviation. It is most likely a meaning attributed to the word later in it's life. The "wow loot" is also not feasible because "loot" was all but invented as a term for MMORPGs like AOE and Aggro. I'm sure that terms like AOE have been used as a in D&D circles, but not to the extent that it is in todays MMORPG which demands abbreviations. Board games and pencil and paper role playing games simply don't require the same kind of abbreviations. (HP, AC, MP, THACO are all acronyms, not contractions of other words)

From what I saw the term woot originated from the same crowd that changed "what" to "wut" and eventually "wot!". It was not one specific community that started this because it was a commonly derived change. These were independent and commonly arrived at changes that were confirmed and supported because they were repeated by other users. The terms woot and wot are both exclamations used in similar situations. Wot being used for surprise and morphed into a general "cool term". The cool kids said "wot" at random. Woot was used for pleasant surprise. Woot emerged as wot started to disappear. It actually replaced it as a common term.

Don't forget that newbie changed to new-b and noobie for the same reason. It was cool at the time to change the spelling of things. (Think limp bizkit) Newb was still originally pronounced "new-bee", you pronounced out that b. Overtime the pronunciation changed. Many words went through similar evolutions. Going from wot to woot is less of a change than newbie to noob. --Cabbruzz 22:00, 15 April 2009 (UTC)--

First Use in Print?
I came across a copy of "Politically, Fashionably, and Aerodynamically Incorrect: the First Outland Collection" by Berkeley Breathed, and on page 20 (approximately -- they're not numbered), Bill the Cat runs off in the last frame after slicing Opus's nose with a chainsaw, exclaiming "Woot!" The book was copyrighted in 1992, so it's possible that the strip in question could have run in 1991 (or perhaps even earlier). Note that this predates many of the citations listed above. Apoor 14:08, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for a bit of actual research! Can you provide a reference link? Scottcmu 14:59, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

This is an interesting discussion and there may be truth to most of the points mentioned above. However, I'd like to point out an even earlier use of the word "woot!" as an exclamation meaning "hurray!". The word appears in the earliest Nexus Comics published by First Comics by Steve Rude and Mike Baron. The first Nexus appeared in 1981. The exclamation itself appears with the first appearance of a teenage character, Mezzrow, somewhere in the first handful of issues (I'd have to dig my old copies out to check to be more specific). As a college sophomore at the time, I remember that this was the first time I had seen this word and assumed that the authors had made it up along with the numerous other alien/futuristic slang terms in the comic. It is possible that they borrowed it from the early gaming community but I can't speak to that. Fixitgirl 10:49, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes I think the cheer has been around for a long time, representing a variant of whoo! with a pronounced glottal stop. This has always been my personal theory as to the origin of the word, but this idea is compatible with the theory that the sudden rise in popularity around the mid-1990s was due to the song, so I've never really bothered to weigh in here.  — Soap — 11:05, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

Possible Origin
I've been in the online community for almost half my life now, and I'm pretty sure I know the origin. I'm really quite suprised nobody else has put this possibility forward (but someone came oh so very close, and I commented there, too). Oh well, n00bz. As I learned it (this would be about 7 years ago that I learned this. Looking at the release dates, I can accurately place this at the end of '02 or the beginning of '03.) an elder gamer who rented an apartment in my house told me it originated as "wow, loot!" This does not refer to "World Of Warcraft + loot" but "neat, loot!" This really explains the exclamation of joy, since loot in EQ1 back then was much harder to come by. Now most MMOs throw cool stuff at you, as opposed to EQ1 where twenty people would raid so that one or two people could get the loot. So, in short, back then loot was worthy of praise. To get colloquial, I remember killing one guy a few dozen times in that game to get a Shiny Brass Shield to sell. It only took me a few days of working on it to get that gorram item. --199.217.32.2 17:21, 14 January 2010 (UTC)


 * w00t is readily attestable from 1998 onwards (try searching Google Groups), so it can'e have originated as late as 2002. Equinox ◑ 17:27, 14 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I never said that's when it started, I said that's when I heard of it; theres a big difference. It may have been going on for a dozen years earlier for all I know. The '02 date was to debunk any WoW rumours (since WoW didn't come out for another two years) and to state that that is how it was used (if not originally used as) at that time period. So I was mostly placing an accurate point when it WAS being used in THIS way, and a postulation that that way was the original way. I know a guy who plays a bunch of the ancient BBS MUD games... I'll ask him when he first heard it. (P.S. Never mind the different siggy, this is the same person who posted at top (199.217.32.2). I was just on a school machine at the time and couldn't login. --Waladil 02:52, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

wo0t
Many people on here have different opinions on what wo0t is. The fact is, that all of you are right. Early in 2009, wo0t was being used as slang for smoking ganja. Once again wo0t gained new meaning in the gaming community. While still using wo0t as celebration over an opponent, it lacked the ability to make me high, and that was what everyone was missing out on. It has improved all morale, except for the wo0tees. The wo0ters will always have their wo0t at their side and ready for a wo0ting session as it is written in the scrolls stored inside the temple of the Wo0tang Clan! This entry is wo0tastic!

History as I remember it
I remember seeing "woot" and "w00t" used a LOT in #hack on efnet in 1993 and 1994, when I was active there. It was mostly the posse guys, but almost everyone was using it. I always assumed it came from the song, "whoot there it is." The new generation hacker scene folks were using it interchangeably with "word" or, more commonly, "werd." It definitely didn't originate in gaming... In fact, I was one of the (many) people who took it from IRC into online games. I was active on muds around the same time, but didn't see it there until many years later. 207.98.236.86 05:49, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Etymology, per Grant Barrett
The main topic of discussion of this page is about the etymology.

There is an authoritative article on this, “The Real History and Origin of Woot and w00t”, by American lexicographer, which I've incorporated (together with The Arsenio Hall Show references) in this edit.

The article credits the term to the song “” (1993) by group, with research, references, and discussion, and dismisses the many folk etymologies. This feels definitive to me: barring further references contesting this, we should give this as the accepted etymology, which it is. As Barrett writes: “The story of woot, as we know it, is simple.”


 * —Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 05:55, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Broken link to wh00t
Thanks for the explanation. Is it alright if I create a redirect at wh00t to whoot?

Thanks. TheDaJakester (talk) 15:42, 9 December 2017 (UTC)


 * We actually don't use redirects where it's a spelling variant (unlike Wikipedia): the other version gets a full "alternative form" entry instead. See e.g. loan word. (This has some benefits relating to how entries are placed into categories, and also I suppose makes the alt form slightly less of a second-class citizen.) So, create an alt-form entry if you like. If you can cite it, that's even better. Equinox ◑ 23:07, 10 December 2017 (UTC)