Pwn

The verb pwn (past tense: pwned , pwnd , pwn d , pwnt ) as used by the Internet video game subculture, means to beat or dominate an opponent (pwned can mean to be made a fool of ). While it probably originated as a typographical error of the word own , it is now used intentionally by many members of the subculture. The term has become so ubiquitous in Internet circles that it is often used outside of gaming contexts- for example, He just got pwned in that debate , The bears pwned that hunter. or Chelsea opened a can of ultimate pwnage

=Etymology=

==Other theories of origination==

*A widely accepted origin of the term traces back to the misspelling of the phrase owned by a top ( or highly skilled ) player of the game Quake. The term quickly spread to less significant players; eventually expanding to virtually the entire population of online gamers.

*One story reports that in an RTS game (either WarCraft II or StarCraft), someone made a custom map where losing players would see a special message. However, instead of typing in YOU WERE OWNED, a typo resulted in YOU WERE PWNED. It is said that every use of the word pwn therefore comes from this one hapless misspelling, or a similar one occurring in another game. This theory is most prevalent.

*One explanation is that the word s development mirrors the development of names given to popular programming languages. The C Programming Language was given its name as the next letter after an even earlier B programming language . C plus plus was the name given to the next iterative revision of C, an inside programming joke whereby ++ increases the referent (in this case C) by a value of 1. By the same logic [with the letter p acting as a ++ ], the word pwn represents own incremented by a value of 1.

*Some people believe that the word was originally a contraction of the term power-owned , pure ownage , pistol-owned , perfectly owned , personally owned , Ping-owned , player-owned , professionally owned , powerfully owned , or properly owned or the words Pimped and owned combined. These are probably back-formations.

*Still another interpretation makes the case that pwned was not an accident, but instead a contraction of the word pawned. This theory is based upon the idea that the person who was defeated was owned , and then pawned off, as an item would be at a pawnshop (see pawnbroker). It can also be a reference to the weakest piece in the game of chess, the pawn.

*One of the ideas of its origin comes from the Hacker subculture. Password Own meant that a person owned the root password, and thus no one but the password owner could access that machine any longer. Password owning is such a powerful way to lock down a Unix machine that it explains how pwn could have gained popularity in online gaming as a more powerful version of own .

*Another theory supports the idea that pwned originated on gaming forums after the word owned was banned. Administrators banned the word to try to keep flame wars down, and as a result, forum users merely changed the spelling to get past any auto-censors in place. (See also article on Pr0n).

*An extension of owned , the idea being that you cannot pawn something/someone (sell it to a pawnbroker) unless you have already owned it/them. You didn t just own them dude, you pawned/pwned them . The popular DOTA Allstars custom map for Warcraft III pops up a message saying A just pawned B s head for C gold everytime a player kills another player.

*There are some who also believe that pwn is actually a 1337 way of typing I own. The p is simply the I and the o combined into one letter. Hence, pwned j00 could be directly translated as I owned you

Of all these theories, the most probable origin is hacker subculture. Examples of its use can be traced as far back as 1986 in an early issue (volume 1, issue 7) of the hacker zine Phrack. That would place its usage well before games like Quake or Warcraft were played.

=Pronunciation=

There is no uniform way to pronounce pwn as it is most often encountered in text. Possible pronunciations include (AmE means American English; BrE means British English):

Same as own

rhymes with soon (this is the only actual pronouncable possibility based on the spelling, coming from the Welsh pronunciation of w , but it also has a sexual connotation)

AmE , BrE (as a Pawn (chess) in chess)

AmE , BrE (rhymes with own )

(with u as in put )

(rhymes with town )

(as pwin )

(similar to , but with an initial y sound)

AmE , BrE (just as own , ignoring the typo)

It is sometimes pronounced with two syllables, for example:

(as pea win )

(as pea own )

=Notable derivative words=

Pwned (Pwnd, Pwn3d, Powned, Pwnt) - An alternate of the past tense or past participle of the verb. An example usage would be You were pwned.

J-Pwned - Adding J- to anything for emphasis, from the term J-Pop for popular Japanese music.

Pwnage (Pwnij, Pwn1g3, Pwn4g3) - means complete domination. The exclamation originated in the gaming culture.

Pwnzer (Pwnz3r, Pwnzr, Pwnzor, Pwnz0r and 0wnz0red) - Variant of pwn based on the slang suffix zor or x0r from hax0r.

*Pizowned (Pizzowned, Owndizzled) - Based on izzle-speak.

Roflpwnt - Combining ROFL (Rolling On the Floor, Laughing) and pwnt .

WTFpwned! - Derived from the contraction of the Internet slang term WTF ( What the fuck ) and pwn and is intended to suggest that a player was not just pwned , but that such pwnage happened so quickly that the other player was left wondering what happened (and saying What the fuck ).

Qwn - Pronounced quon is a lesser-known derivative of owned and pwned ; as p follows o, q alphabetically follows p. It is intended to be somewhat satirical of pwned as it would be a very unlikely typo. When typed in lowercase, the q in qwned resembles a mirror-reversed lowercase p . Also, q is opposite side of a QWERTY keyboard.

Bwn - Pronounced bone and has two meanings, the first being another level of being pwned (similar to pwnage ); the second being a vulgar term for sexual intercourse.

=See also=

*Internet slang *Typographical error *Pure Pwnage

=External links=

*[http://www.reallifecomics.com/daily.phpstrip_id=1428 A theory of etymology]