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? — Paul G 09:14, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)
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)
too bad the lyrics were "whoomp, there it is!"
Failed RFV. - TheDaveRoss 07:35, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
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)
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
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)
/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. ~~
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)
w00t originally came from internet team based gaming and stood for, We Owned Other Team.
email me at luciferfok@<removed>
There is explanation on the main page.. I totally disagree with it.. Woot! what there way before WOW came out...
Seconded. I knew this word in Dark Age of Camelot, before WoW had even been mentioned, let alone released.
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)
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)
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)
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.orghttps://dictious.com/en/Whoomp%21_%28There_It_Is%29 75.185.161.15 10:57, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
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). — This unsigned comment was added by 66.119.170.242 (talk) at 22:18, 13 June 2008 (UTC).
'whoohoo' is listed as a synonym, but I believe the intended link is woohoo. --Edemaine 18:28, 25 June 2008 (UTC)
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. — This unsigned comment was added by 74.71.104.111 (talk) at 18:59, 8 July 2008 (UTC).
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.
— This unsigned comment was added by 124.182.175.44 (talk) at 08:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC).
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)
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...
— This unsigned comment was added by 65.184.251.225 (talk) at 16:05, 21 November 2008 (UTC).
There is ZERO evidence that this is the most likely explanation. Please revise. ThunderPeel2001 15:02, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
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)--
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)
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)
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!
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)
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 Grant Barrett, which I've incorporated (together with The Arsenio Hall Show references) in this edit.
The article credits the term to the song “Whoot, There It Is” (1993) by group 95 South, 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.”
@Equinox 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)