Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 17, 2004

Leet (or 31337, or 1337) is a cipher, or simply a novelty form of English spelling. It is characterized by the use of non-alphabet characters to stand for letters bearing a superficial resemblance, and by a number of quasi-standard spelling changes such as the substitution of "z" for final "s" and "x" for "(c)ks". Leet is traditionally used on the Internet and other online communities, such as bulletin board systems, to complement Internet slang or "chatspeak." Real hackers, as opposed to computer criminals, do not normally use leet due to its association with Internet users they dislike, pejoratively dubbed lamers or script kiddies. However, leet is a cultural phenomenon well-known amongst hackers, and is known and used (usually in the jocular) by many computer professionals because of this. (more...)

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