New(?) jargon using the verb, _root_

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great! You did a wonderful job of rooting around for earlier cites, Ben.

On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 11:38 PM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: New(?) jargon using the verb, _root_
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 10:04 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>>
>> In the 1998 example below the spelling for "rooted" is "r00t3d". This
>> is "leet" style parody spelling. This date can be pushed back I
>> believe. But searching Google Groups is a Sisyphean task. The results
>> are inconsistent and nonsensical. Also, maybe Phrack magazine has an
>> early cite.
>>
>> Newsgroups: uk.telecom, uk.telecom.mobile
>> From: Paul Gregg
>> Date: 1998/12/26
>> Subject: Re: Free Calls to 07050 numbers
>> http://groups.google.com/group/uk.telecom/msg/dfb73f92cb2a605f
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Absolute tripe. Unless you've r00t3d every news server in the world.
>> Which isn't the case since you sent begging emails to all ISPs begging
>> us to add your alt.fan.habankak crap.
>> [End excerpt]
>
> With the usual spelling, the hacker sense of "rooted" can be pushed
> back to 1997:
>
> ---
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.security.unix/msg/a6d8255fafcf51e6
> comp.security.unix, Sep. 27, 1997
> So if it IS an evil program, they've already got you rooted.
> ---
>
> This issue of "ThE HaX0R bRoThErS NeWzLetTeR" from Oct. 1997 has a
> couple of alternate spellings:
>
> ---
> http://web.textfiles.com/ezines/HAX0R/haxo7.txt
> YeS w3 DiD iT@# ThE hAX0R bR0tHErZ roOTED mTv!
> ...
> WaRPY iS bEinG r00TeD
> ---
>
> An earlier issue of the newsletter (from June 1997) has "R00tErZ":
>
> http://web.textfiles.com/ezines/HAX0R/haxo4.txt
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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