Who gives a w00t?

'Tis the season for weirdly fascinating stories...take the Word Of The Year Contest or WOTY. I had no idea that Merriam-Webster sponsors the contest annually. This year's winner is w00t (pronounced "whoot" and spelled with two zeros), an exclamation of joy used primarily by gamers. One of the runners up is Facebook, which the dictionary defines as a verb. Not such good news for the Facebook folks, I'd think -- looked what happened to Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex brand. Once it became a household word and stood for any type of facial tissue, it became extremely hard to protect the trademark in court. Today, the company spends mucho money defending its property rights.

-posted by Rachel