Congratulations World of WarCraft addicts. Give yourselves a pat on the back, Halo’ers. You and all the other gamers and internet fans out there have collectively legitimized 1337 speak.

Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. recently announced that their word of the year for 2007 is the internet slang expression of joy or excitement, w00t. On Webster’s website they announced the winner, along with a number of runner-up words.

The site defines w00t (yes, spelled with two zeros) as: expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word “yay”

Ex: w00t! I won the contest!

W00t beat out 2nd place term and internet phenomenon “facebook” to take top honors, and joins Stephen Colbert’s word of last year – truthiness – among the great words of our generation. So stand tall, my fellows. We have reached the pinnacle of wordiness.

What does this mean for the average gamer? Well, if you haven’t noticed gaming is rapidly becoming more mainstream, and getting a traditionally gamer word inducted as the word of the year is another step in this direction.

While some gamers may lament n00bs stealing their word, it does mean that all things gaming are gaining greater acceptance. If we all pull together, maybe we can pwn the rest of the words next year and get pwn instated in the dictionary next year.