Thank the internet

This morning I see that “w00t” is the Merriam-Webster word of the year, double-zeros and all. The good folks at Merriam-Webster take their poll on the internet so something like this is bound to happen. Some might question the wisdom of a word that isn’t really a real word winning word of the year. I don’t. I might stop and marvel at democracy in action (the people want to do what?)

If anything I’m kind of disappointed in the internet, why’d you have to go and do that? You weren’t satisfied sticking it to the man with your unconventional words made up of letters and symbols? You had to go and beg for acceptance from the man? Tisk tisk tisk. I didn’t know you were so insecure.

For those of you who are not familiar with the word w00t, let me give you a chance to get to know the word of the year. Fortunately Merriam-Webster recently attempted to codify for you:

1. w00t (interjection) - expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay."

Example usage: w00t! I won the contest!

Of course this does have some grim consequences for Scrabble. Will they be forced to add numbers and special characters in future editions to support the evolution of English?