As a side note, this marks the first time a word comprised partly of numbers (the Os are traditionally zeros) has been put into the Dictionary since 2003s inclusion of Sk8r Boi. The Definition? (N.)-One who wasnt good enough for her / But now hes a superstar / Slammin on his guitar / Does her pretty face see what hes worth?
In all seriousness, Ive got to say this is something of a troubling sign. Im all for gamer slang; anything that keeps a barrier of understanding between them and me is all right in my book. But the fact that its gaining mainstream acceptance gives the linguophile in me a shiver of fear, and a vision of a day when l33t is the U.S.s official language.
To be fair, Merriam-Websters word of the year is chosen by Internet ballot, so it makes sense wed be seeing things like truthiness and blog start making the rounds. But is that really what we want? Do we really want the same folks who create entire online encyclopedias just to chronicle their hilarious labyrinthine subculture deciding the direction the English language is going in?
And by hilarious, I mean roflcopter lolcat zomg kekeke!!!1!!one!!Im hilarious!!!
I dont know about you, but I dont want to live in a world where when I drop a bag of groceries while walking home from the store, there are good odds that someone walking by will mutter you just got RickRolld. Sure, it sounds cool now, but trust me; itd get old REAL quick.
To that end, I hereby nominate a word of my own creation for the 2008 word of the year:
Roflrift-(N.) The point in human history at which language becomes so fractured by subculture slang and the rapid invention of new words that no human being is capable of communicating intelligibly with another, and the world is thrown violently back into the Dark Ages.
And believe me, The Roflrift is coming.