[Ads-l] Antedatings of leetspeak (1996)

[Hugo]

Leetspeak has been added to the OED in this June's update, dated 1999
from Usenet.

Here's three Usenet antedatings of leetspeak (1996) and variations
l33tsp33k (1997) and l33t-sp34k (1998).

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1996 May 7, Weigle, Thomas, “Re: Realmz Scenario Summary”, in
comp.sys.mac.games.adventure,Usenet[1], retrieved 15 July 2016,
message-ID <thomas.weigle-0705961754080001 at dialup96-1-16.swipnet.se>:

well, after all i am a student of languages... which lets me peek into
sociology now and then. i haven't studied the 'leet guys very much,
but it seems to me that as they all understand their form of
"communication", the main purpose (ie separating themselves as a group
from the mainstream) is successful. especially as it is almost
impossible to understand leetspeak at first.

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1997 June 12, KaFRoKa, “Re: Another new cascade!”, in
alt.games.final-fantasy, Usenet[2], retrieved 15 July 2016, message-ID
<5npiei$lrn$1 at thor.atcon.com>:

Murg is God [It's "/\/\U|>,g 15 g4\/\/D" in l33tsp33k]

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1998 May 24, Cantrick, Ben, “Re: Abuse of alphanumerics. Why do haX0r
d00dz do it?”, in alt.2600, Usenet[3], retrieved 15 July 2016,
message-ID <6k9pf8$f5o at peabody.colorado.edu>:

People associate "l33t-speak" with hackers, so when new hackers start
to get into the scene they assume they need to write like that, which
perpetuates the belief that hackers use l33t-sp34k.

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[1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/comp.sys.mac.games.adventure/vF9pHR8_gOo/_tuR0PB3ZxEJ
[2] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/alt.games.final-fantasy/_7kl9QJtb24/YgZnkAPTNgoJ
[3] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/alt.2600/qoy8xk_mxro/QNcBYHCNMrwJ


Hugo

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