h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's certainly not derived from 'hoot', as the article claims. W00t is another form of r00t, which can also be typed as r3wt.

To claim root is to say that you have successfully gained root access to a person's *nix box without their consent, because you are indeed, a '1337 h4x0r'.

I thought w00t came from team deathmatch games (not sure whether it stems from Quake or Doom), it stands for "We Own the Other Team", it certainly doesn't come from r00t, since they still just use r00t!

Insomuch as I know, w00t originated in RPGs (role playing games). When players would find items or loot (spelled lewt in leet) they would exclaim "Wow! Loot!" Written in leet, this phrase is roughly "w0w! 13w7!" though may variations do exist.

Gradually, the two words were contracted into one word. "w0" for wow and "0t" for lewt. Togeather they are w00t.

And thus, a word is born!

w00t are ye on aboot

W00t w45 d1r1v3d n317h3r phr0m "h007", "1007" 0r "w0w 1007". W00t 15 qu173 s1mp1y 4 phr453 0f 17'5 0wn, wh1ch h4pp3n2 70 h4v3 4 m34n1n6 s1m114r 70 "h007".

N00b l4m3r2, 411 j00r r007 4r3 b310n6 70 m3!

I've also heard the theory that w00t originated from Quake, but I think it also makes logical sense that it could've been some sort of freak love-child of woo-hoo! and hoot! or loot! or something of that nature, made up by lazy ppl who either don't like typing out big long strings of 1337 words or just don't like typing big words at all. I personally used "woo-hoo!" a lot when I was *really* a n00b, but I dropped it from my regular vocabulary when I discovered the loverly simple shortness of w00t. It also works very niftily in spoken conversation, a charicteristic not so much found in uniquely 133t words. ^^

-The Ballpoint Tattoo

my personal guess is tha w00t comes from having a hard one (woot) from enjoning yourself.
I mean well, it was thought of by some guy so...

The first time I saw "w00t" was on Usenet years ago (long before Q2 CTF).

The OP had posted a list of system specs that everyone drooled over. I replied "iwantoneofthose.com", and several posters followed.

In later threads, an indication of respect or desire for someone's hardware was indicated by the abreviation for iwantoneofthose.com, simply "I woot.com", or "woot.com" or just "woot".

Fast forward several years, I'm reading slashdot, where I discover (with some amusement) that "woot" (or "w00t" in l33t'ish) is now in common use. The context (initially) is correct, but as with any abreviation or acronym, eventually it starts getting used by people who basically don't really know what it means, and the meaning is diluted.

Ironically, there actually *is* a iwantoneofthose.com website nowadays (commercial) and I've even bought stuff from them.

This reply is about 2 years too late, but ... oh well ....zzzz

-
[H]omer

I'm affraid all of your theorys for w00t are wrong, the actual term 'w00t' means Woo Hoo, as if your jumping out for joy or something... Take it from someone who is a 98% computer g33k and knows practically everything about computers...

3><(ePt |-|0\x/ 70 |_|53 593|_|_ (|-|3(|<...

you guys are all wrong and probably no older than 16. (except for the ones that agree with what I am about to say)

w00t is derived from the proununciation of the word ROOT, for ROOT access in a Unix system. It's a hacker's term for gaining access to a box. It can be interpreted as a cry of joy or accomplishment, but the reasons it has been bastardized by so many to mean things like "we own the other team" kind of crap is disappointing. it's not a flippin' acronym. If you all even knew what THAT was, you'd die from the complexity of the real meaning of all the words you throw around today and don't have a clue as to the true meaning of them.

Do a little research and ask some old skool folks that were running BBS software back in the day of the 2400 baud rate modems and then you might get some answers. There's nothing like surfing a hacked AOL account on a 2400 with version 1.0 software.

stick that in your w00t.

Yep... you sound sad enough to need the accolade. Well done mate.

errr, no one else think it comes from "Woop"

as in "wooop wooop woooop wooop woooop" as encounterd on CSS?

woop changes too woot, for no real reason

its unlikely anyone uses it for the high-brow reasons posted above, sorry guys.

0r 5h0u1d 1 54y n00b5?