# Origin of "pwn" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 12, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099 "2008-03-12T13:31:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/21 "2008-03-12T18:57:27Z")
[QUOTE=Chiefscott] So I’m assuming on these games there’s some type of \*\*shat \*\*feature. [/QUOTE] (bolding mine) …snrrrrrrrk. Generally, yes. ---
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/22 "2008-03-12T19:01:01Z")
Damn. Double damn. I re-read that post, what, two times before posting? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/23 "2008-03-12T19:33:16Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] I have geekier friends who will say it out loud, and pronounce it ‘poon’, and I giggle. [/QUOTE] Years ago my friends and I would say ‘Ya bloody poon!’ But then I started working with a woman whose surname was Poon. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/24 "2008-03-12T19:47:35Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Wait wait wait. I’ve heard it claimed for years that “pwn” originated as a typo in the first Warcraft, and that it took off from there. Cn anyone confirm or deny? [/QUOTE] I strongly doubt it. It more than likely arose from the time when deathmatch FPS was the king of online play, in the days of Quake 1 and 2. Games were very fast-paced, and you usually only had a few spare seconds to type out a quick text message to the guy you just fragged. It’s very likely that many people, attempting to stab out a quick ‘owned!’ flubbed it and came out with ‘pwned!’. You certainly never had time to proofread what you were typing. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/25 "2008-03-12T19:53:06Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] I strongly doubt it. It more than likely arose from the time when deathmatch FPS was the king of online play, in the days of Quake 1 and 2. Games were very fast-paced, and you usually only had a few spare seconds to type out a quick text message to the guy you just fragged. It’s very likely that many people, attempting to stab out a quick ‘owned!’ flubbed it and came out with ‘pwned!’. You certainly never had time to proofread what you were typing. [/QUOTE] Yeah typos become part of the vocab. Back when I played EQ everybody knew PPM stood for Out-Of-Mana (I never saw it used intentionally, but that’s a real common accident). ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/26 "2008-03-12T19:54:21Z")
There is a wikipedia entry on the word, for those who are interested. You can find it here. > **[Leet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn)** > > Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet. It often uses character replacements in ways that play on the similarity of their glyphs via reflection or other resemblance. Additionally, it modifies certain words based on a system of suffixes and alternative meanings. There are many dialects or linguistic varieties in different online communities. > The term "leet" is derived from the word elite, used as an adjective to descr... ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/27 "2008-03-12T20:02:13Z")
It definitely predates World of Warcraft by some years, since I recall it being in common usage in EQ years before WoW’s release. It’s almost certainly a typo of “own” since in a good many FPS (and other pvp games or games with pvp elements), “own” is vernacular for “killed you in a particularly embarassing fashion/without any difficulty whatsoever” and has been for as long as I’ve been playing those sorts of games. So at least 12 years. ETA: I’ve always heard it pronounced (when I’ve heard it pronounced aloud) as “pone”. ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/28 "2008-03-12T20:18:11Z")
My World of Warcraft contacts told me, when I asked the same thing, that it originated as “power-owned”, kinda like a superlative to “I owned that mofo!” The people who told me this have been known to play for 14 hours straight, so they are somewhat reliable on that topic. Oh, and **ChiefScott** , “some sort of shat function”? Teh. Best. Typo. Evar. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/29 "2008-03-12T20:26:30Z")
[QUOTE=Aangelica] It definitely predates World of Warcraft by some years, since I recall it being in common usage in EQ years before WoW’s release. [/QUOTE] Nono, not WoW: > [@Ogre](#): > > I’ve heard it claimed for years that “pwn” originated as a typo in **the first Warcraft** , and that it took off from there. I don’t have any citation to back me up, but while I don’t believe it came from the original Warcraft RTS, that’s certainly an old enough game to have been popular during the word’s inception. And the ‘power-owned’ explanation is a complete load of after-the-fact hooey IMO. I strongly suspect the word would have emerged some other way were that the primary meaning, likely as powned or p-owned or some such. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/30 "2008-03-12T21:49:37Z")
I never use it, and I mentally subtract about 30 IQ points from my evaluation of anyone I come across on the internet who uses ‘pwn’ in a sentence. Either that, or I assume they are twelve years old. Leet speak is a perfect example of a joke that was funny for about the first dozen times it was ever used, and after that just became increasingly tedious. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/31 "2008-03-13T00:00:44Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] Years ago my friends and I would say ‘Ya bloody poon!’ But then I started working with a woman whose surname was Poon. [/QUOTE] What kind of a name is “Poon,” anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/32 "2008-03-13T01:24:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The 'pwn" is sort of a ret-conned l33t usage that is meant to be typed. Huh. I would have never knpwn. Boy do I feel like a clpwn. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/33 "2008-03-13T01:46:09Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] What kind of a name is “Poon,” anyway? [/QUOTE] Commanche Indian. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/34 "2008-03-13T01:53:51Z")
So, it wasn’t named after a certain bad-ass Marine Sergeant on LV-426? ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/35 "2008-03-13T02:17:21Z")
> [@](#): > > It definitely predates World of Warcraft by some years, since I recall it being in common usage in EQ years before WoW’s release. No no no. Not WoW. Warcraft. The first Warcraft. Orcs vs. humans and whatnot. It came out in 1994, easily early enough to be the origin of the word. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/36 "2008-03-13T02:20:15Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > I have a vague memory of poker player Phil Hellmuth claiming he invented “pwn” while playing online That bullshit stinks to high heaven. And **Ogre** , most online gaming communities are going to claim to have invented “pwn” and any number of other conventions if pressed. **bufftabby** , your WoW friends are full of shit. “pwn” has been around _a lot_ longer than WoW has. > [@Bosstone](#): > > In other words, it was a mistake that people who couldn’t type claimed was correct Are you seriously suggesting that the original users of “pwn” claimed it was the correct spelling? Are you sure? > [@ChiefScott](#): > > I just realized how frickin’ out of touch I am. I hate to rain on your parade even more, but “leet” hasn’t been very cool for almost 10 years–any usage since then has mostly been either ironic, frowned upon, or both. I would also argue that “pwn” has a tenuous connection to leet, at best. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/37 "2008-03-13T02:23:35Z")
> [@](#): > > That bullshit stinks to high heaven. And Ogre, most online gaming communities are going to claim to have invented “pwn” and any number of other conventions if pressed. bufftabby, your WoW friends are full of shit. “pwn” has been around a lot longer than WoW has. Look up two posts. NOT World Of Warcraft. The 1994 Warcraft. The first one. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/38 "2008-03-13T02:29:58Z")
[QUOTE=The Controvert] So, it wasn’t named after a certain bad-ass Marine Sergeant on LV-426? [/QUOTE] You mean Apone? ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/39 "2008-03-13T11:31:36Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] Commanche Indian. [/QUOTE] Nice…except it’s Comanche with one M. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099/40 "2008-03-13T12:12:12Z")
Using my newfound knowledge gained from this thread, I’m more apt to believe the “typo” origin of ‘pwn’ vice the retconned-sounding “Powerfully Owned” origin. And I’m considering using the ‘poon’ pronounciation if only to get me some sweet “pwntang” from **MrsChief**! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-pwn/441099.md?page=3)