1337
From Egs Mayhem
-Neutrality Challenged-
[A corrupted, moronic form of English that replaces some letters with numbers and throws out others altogether. Used by newbies who have spent way too much time on online games, chat rooms, and instant messengers and have yet to learn that one has all the time in the world to fully write out posts in a message board (barring getting ninja'd.)Here is an example of 1337: j00 43r 4 n006, 1 4m 50 /\\/\\u<h 63++3r 7h@n j00, 1 4m 50 pr0, LOL (Translation into recognisable english: You are a person who is very unskillful, I am so much better than you, I am a person who is really skillfull, Laugh out loud). [sarcastic]You can really recognise what it says without the translation [/sarcastic]]
To those that are less inclined to use, much less attempt to understand it, 1337 (leet, formerly "Elite") is a language that has played a prominent role in the forming of internet culture. It's use was intended to bypass text filters in some of the more restrictive bulletin boards and email programs. The basic concept of the language is to replace letters with numbers and symbols, ie. "[)|[) j00 /|/07 1|573/|/? | 701[) j00 | 5p34|< 1337!" (translation: "did you not listen? i told you i speak leet!"). One of the major issues with 1337 is that almost everyone who "speaks" it has their own dialect, with different spelling and different replacement ciphers. While it's use has fallen to the wayside, It still remains as a legitimate form of communication on the internet.
