jargon /hak'speek/ A shorthand method of spelling found on

many British academic bulletin boards and chat 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 talk systems,

which operated on archaic machines with outdated operatingsystems and no standard methods of communication. Has become

rarer since.