hakspek: /hak'speek/ n. A shorthand method of spelling found on
many British academic bulletin boards and talker systems.
Syllables and whole words in a sentence are replaced by single ASCII
characters the names of which are phonetically similar or
equivalent, while multiple letters are usually dropped. Hence,
`for' becomes `4'; `two', `too', and `to' become `2'; `ck' becomes
`k'. "Before I see you tomorrow" becomes "b4 i c u 2moro". First
appeared in London about 1986, and was probably caused by the
slowness of available talker systems, which operated on archaic
machines with outdated operating systems and no standard methods of
communication. Has become rarer since. See also talk mode.
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