| Asker | |
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What is the orgins of this "L337" Anyway? Some kid in a halflife chat accidently type "f34r" and go "whoa, 3 and 4 looks like E and A. Sw33t!!"? |
| The Nerd Viewing Audience | |
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I'd say it started when someone with a need for a coded form of communication accidentally reached too far touch-typing E and O and got 3 and 0 instead, and noticed they could be substituted. |
| The Nerd Viewing Audience | |
| Actually, the roots of Leet Speak can be traced all the way to the 1970s. |
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| The Nerd Viewing Audience | |
| There's probably no way to locate the precise origin of it, but it evolved on hacking, cracking and phreaking BBSes in the 1980s. It was simple encryption. The uninitiated, as well as language-recognition and search programs would pass it off as gibberish. That allowed people to evade attempts at censorship. "Porn" may not be allowed, but that doesn't outlaw "pr0n." |
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| The Nerd Viewing Audience | |
| Use of it exploded along with Internet access, and now it's mostly become a joke. |
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| The Nerd Viewing Audience | |
| Oh, and "leet" is short for "elite." What many "hax0rs" considered themselves to be. |
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| Michael | |
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Did you know that Google's 133t? http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/? Following out 133t scheme. |
| 1337 B3y0|\|c3 | |
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|<3w1. |
