pr0n (1994) gamerpr0n pr0n* - words constructed from letters, numbers, and other characters

[Charles Doyle]

There were other little folk games with the old hand-held calculators. Back in the 1980s, my son and his male peers (about 10 years old) knew narratives and riddles that involved punching in numbers (sometimes adding numbers) with the would result that interesting words would appear on the tiny upsidedown screen. One, I remember, culminated in "ShELLOIL." Another, concerning Dolly Parton (a figure that played a large role in the minds of that folkgroup), yielded the word "BOOBS."

The kids were learning about numbers and words and technology and capitalism and sex all at once!

--Charlie



---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:55:04 -0400
>From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> (on behalf of Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I like Garson's hypothesis of calculator spelling being the origin of
>l33tspeak, having engaged in it myself as a kid in the 70s and 80s
>with early calculators with those displays where the characters were
>made out of 7 lines arranged as two squares on top of each other. We
>used to enjoy punching in 7334 - turn upside down and it was "hell."
>Giggles would ensue. Make it 07334 and it became the innocuous
>"hello" and you could pretend the thing was talking to you. I *think*
>there were some early calculator "tricks," if you would, where you
>were given numbers and functions to put in and the product, when
>turned upside down, would spell out a word.
>
>But I don't use 1337speak. I never got into either bulletin boards
>nor the early text games (like the original Zelda?), so I think those
>were also key in the development of 1337speak.
>
>I am old enough to remember guys in the campus computer lab printing
>out nudie pictures on dot-matrix printers: the pictures were composed
>of all the various keyboard symbols. Ah, programming.
>
>---Amy West
>
>>Date:    Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:33:08 -0400
>>From:    Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject: Re: pr0n (1994) gamerpr0n pr0n* - words constructed from letters,
>>          numbers, and other characters
>>
>>Victor Steinbok wrote
>>>  How do they treat w00t and n00b, d00d?
>>
>>The usual rationale offered for the construction of the term pr0n is
>>the avoidance of filters and searches. This is plausible, but terms
>>like w00t, n00b, and d00d were presumably not created to circumvent
>>filters or hide from searches.
>>
>>Calculator spelling of the 1970s substituted upside-down numbers for
>>letters. For example, 3 becomes an E. I think this influenced Leet
>>(1337) Speak on bulletin boards in the 1980s, and B1FF slang on
>>Usenet. The term pr0n is rooted in this evolving slang. The Dictionary
>>of Computing connects it to B1FF slang.
>
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