wOOt!!

I say it all the time. As in " wOOt! Heroes is out on DVD" or "wOOt! That reno quote has come in SO much lower than expected"! Ok, that last one was a complete fabrication.

What the hell does it MEAN? I thought it was just an onomatopoeia for a shortened woo-hoo trailing off in a whistle. But oh no....

Woot originated as a hacker term for root (or administrative) access to a computer. However, with the term as coincides with the gamer term, "w00t".

"w00t" was originally an truncated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for "Wow, loot!" Thus the term passed into the net-culture where it thrived in video game communities and lost its original meaning and is used simply as a term of excitement.

-Urban Dictionary

Doubtless some of my geekier friends (you know who you are) will be shaking their heads going "You figure this out NOW??" but hey, I thought it was just a word like YAY (You Are Yodelling?) or UM (U mean.....?) or WOW (Werewolves or Witches?).

Now I know better...