Leet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The ELinks web browser, set to Leet language, on the Leet language version of Google.

Leet, usually written as "1337" in Leetspeak, is an online culture and/or attitude, as well as a language code, among the Internet population. The word itself is derived phonetically from the word "elite", and is a cipher, or cryptic form of spelling replacing letters with numbers, symbols, and other letters that look or sound alike. Leetspeak was first used by hackers (usually teenaged, and termed r0dents at the time) on Bulletin Board Systems, and then later adopted by users of Online Multiplayer Games and other Internet communities. "Leet" first appeared In the demoscene of the 1980s, applying to people belonging to large warez groups who had access to a (then rare) 28.8k baud modem and would be allowed to use "elite BBSes".

Spelling variation does not always follow a set convention. The same word may be spelt differently by different people, or even by the same person to confuse others even more. This is symptomatic of the desire or affected desire to elude comprehension by others unfamiliar with the foreign art form.

Many consider it a pointless affectation, and as it has become widely used it is less useful as a way of showing membership of an "elite" group. It is nonetheless a cultural phenomenon well-known amongst hackers and many other Internet users, especially gamers.

Certain factions maintain that "true" Leetspeak is spelled correctly, with the exceptions described below. They do not consider the use of extreme short forms (such as "b" for "be", or "u" for "you" as Leetspeak; instead, they refer to it by such terms as "AOL speak". This is because they associate such habits with users who use ISPs like AOL, which is associated with "noobness" and therefore not considered "elite." The chief difference between Leetspeak and AOL speak is that Leetspeak has the goal of obfuscating traditional written language while in AOL speak the goal is primarily to shorten words (and therefore allow "n00bs" to be able to communicate more quickly). Another convention sometimes associated with Leetspeak or Internet chatting is capitalizing every other letter (LiKe ThIs), sometimes called studlycaps or stickycaps. A similar habit involves capitalizing every consonant (LiKe THiS).