So, I see this term being tossed about here on the SDMB, most recently here: Fox News get pwned!.
Please explain meaning, etymology, and current usage to an old geezer. (That would be me, I’m afraid…)
“P” is a common miskey for “O.” so much so, that “pwned” was a frequent typo for “owned” and became slang for that word.
Check out this explanation from Urban Dictionary. I’ve often turned to them for explanation of similar items.
Nothing to it – it is the word “owned”, modified by a common typographical error.
“Owned”, in turn, comes from such expressions as “The Yankees owned the Red Sox for decades” – “owned” meaning “bested” or “dominated”, expecially in competitive contexts. The meaning of “owned/pwned” has diffused a bit over the last decade or so … it can mean that someone got over on someone else in a mild way: “Owned! They got the last cup of coffee. Now you have to make the next pot..”
I’ve also seen it used in contexts where someone was defeated by circumstances - often arising out of their own stupid action - rather than by individuals.
In fact, the Fox News thing is one of these - nobody in particular has ‘owned’ them - they just made a public example of their own fallibility.
I’m a geezer myself, and do not use the term - I can’t even figure out how to pronounce it. But the gaffe by Fox was so egregious that the term just seemed to be le mote juste.
Good point. The subtext is that getting defeated by circumstances AND doing it in front of a camera/audience/in public really makes it an “pwned” moment.
And this whole time I thought it was short for pawned, as in, the chess piece. Because every other piece is more powerful than the pawn, so if you hand somebody a whoop ass, you were the queen, and they were the pawn. Ignorance fought.
Geek squad was on Jeopardy the other day, and they pronounced it like owned, with a p… powned, if you will. Makes much more sense now.
Bordelond FTW 
:smack: but at the same time. Wish I were witty enough to have done that one purpose.
I don’t get it?
I move that we start pronouncing it “pooned”, as if it was Welsh.
But then it would be just like replacing “pawn” with “vagina” in my previous personal definition.
ETA: Umm… or something.
I think a more accurate descriptor for that sort of thing is often “FAIL!” or possible “epic fail”.
Gaudere’s Law applies even in French, it would seem.
I’ve always understood it to be pronounced just like “owned”. When you speak it then your tone and volume of voice should convey the difference.
Some people do.
Me, for example.
For what it’s worth, Cartman on South Park also pronounced it something like “powned” or “pone’d,” in a video game centric episode awhile back.
Part of me, though, can’t help but wonder how long it was that the term was in common usage before a human voice actually spoke it out loud.
I recently heard that the first instance of “pwned” was a typo in a dialog box in the original PC version of Warcraft (1994).
Does anybody have any idea if there is any truth to this? Does anybody remember seeing it, or have a copy they can fire up on an old machine and see if it’s true?