What Is '1337' Leet?

Question: What Is '1337' Leet?

Answer: '1337' means "elite", or just "leet" for short. It is a jargon term meant to describe someone with very high-end computer and gaming skills.

Example of '1337' / 'leet' usage:

• (user 1): Boo yeah! Did you see how quickly that monster went down? We crushed him good!
• (user 2): We're leet, baby! Uber pwnage skills right there!
• Another example of '1337' / 'leet' usage:
  
  • (user 1): My company is hiring. We need a PHP programmer with seriously 1337 skills. Must know Apache server and AJAX.
  • (user 2): I might know a leet code monkey for you. Let me see if he's online right now...
  
  
  The Story Behind '1337 Leet'
  
  In the days of Windows 95, a group of infamous hackers named "The Dead Cow Cult" used to take remote control of Windows 95 machines. They used a nasty software package called Back Orifice, and used the network port 31337 to take over thousands of Win95 computers worldwide. Their purposeful misspelling of the world "elite" as "leet" or "1337" was a way to bypass censorship programs.
  
  Years later, the Dead Cow Cult influence has morphed into a subculture of jargon and power user language. People who speak "leet" today are not malicious hackers. Instead leetspeak is often the trademark of serious Internet gamers and people who pride themselves on being technically savvy. About.com explains some of the leetspeak world here... Related terms to leet: hax0r, chixor, 3ber, epeen, r0x0r. These hacker-type terms were originally purposely spelled with numbers to avoid censorship programs. Today, the numeric spelling is used as a form of subculture and expressiveness.