# What is offensive about this Vanity license plate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542 "2021-07-02T22:17:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/81 "2023-12-07T16:04:20Z")
> [@Tigrman699](#): > > XTAZY For better or worse, TAZ is what jumps out at me, the Looney Toons character. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/82 "2023-12-07T16:41:50Z")
I got a new travel trailer and am contemplating a vanity plate for it. So far the leading contender is **TTITD** , That Thing In The Desert, a visual shorthand for Burning Man – it doesn’t roll off of the tongue easily. Wish me luck. > **[TTITD - That Thing in the Desert (Burning Man annual art event) | AcronymFinder](https://www.acronymfinder.com/That-Thing-in-the-Desert-(Burning-Man-annual-art-event)-(TTITD).html)** > > How is That Thing in the Desert (Burning Man annual art event) abbreviated? TTITD stands for That Thing in the Desert (Burning Man annual art event). TTITD is defined as That Thing in the Desert (Burning Man annual art event) very frequently. > **[Urban Dictionary: TTITD](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TTITD)** > > acronym for "That Thing In The Desert" aka Burning Man ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/83 "2023-12-07T16:50:08Z")
I don’t get the “P”, or was that to kind of disguise it? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/84 "2023-12-07T16:58:01Z")
I have no idea why, but “pwn” is a common variant spelling. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/85 "2023-12-07T17:05:25Z")
TBH, I see “pwn” way more often than “own” in gamer and internet chat (actually, most often as “pwned” as in “you got pwned!”) It goes back to at least the 90s. I remember it from BBS leetspeak. There’s controversy as to how it’s pronounced. Some say it’s just “own.” I and my friends say it as “pone.” I think some even say it as “pawn.” ETA: Actually, scratch the 90s and BBS leetspeak bit. Apparently, according to reputable sources, it’s the early 2000s where it rose to prominence and Google ngrams supports that when I graph for “pwned.” I coulda sworn it was 90s and BBSes, but apparently it’s a little bit after that during the early wave of mass Internet. Etymonline cites it to “by 2001”: > “dominated, humiliatingly defeated, taken over,” by 2001, “leetspeak” slang, probably from the common typographical mistake for [owned](https://www.etymonline.com/word/owned) (the -p- and -o- keys being adjacent on standard English keyboards) in the gamer slang sense “completely dominated by another” (in a contest). Merriam-Webster gives 1999 as first known usage. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/86 "2023-12-07T17:12:42Z")
> [@Tigrman699](#): > > In Florida, I had the DMV revoke my vanity plate “XTAZY”.which I placed on the back of my Nissan 300ZX, as promoting the use of an illegal substance. They were wrong about my intention and its meaning but I understood why they revoked it after considering their position. Hilarious, given how in the other thread I observed that they have okayed LSD for their regular plates for decades now (I worked for the Florida tag agency in the late 80’s and definitely recall seeing them then). ---
**Author:** ![Tigrman699](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Tigrman699](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigrman699)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/87 "2023-12-07T17:20:09Z")
Exactly…driving that sports car was pure ecstasy…I didn’t even know that it was a drug too. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/88 "2023-12-07T17:22:25Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I have no idea why, but “pwn” is a common variant spelling. “P” is next to “O” on a keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/89 "2023-12-07T17:23:21Z")
Back in my online NASCAR race days, I was competing at an online race at Talladega. While cruising along during a caution flag, car #69 was in front of me. I pulled along side to check out his paint job (we designed our own cars) when I noticed he had tongues sticking out of the round part of each number licking the other number. I left a comment all the other drivers could see saying “IC tongues!!”. During the rest of the race if someone else saw the tongues, a comment would pop up saying “IC tongues 2”. I’m sure some of the other competitors wondered what was going on. I later entered a vehicle in a truck race, the #77 Get Atemore Bar Chevy. A couple other competitors got the joke. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/90 "2023-12-07T18:29:30Z")
‘You’re about to get pwned’ were the final words heard by the villain before getting killed in South Park’s 2006 Emmy winning episode, Make Love, Not Warcraft, arguably their most influential. It would have been in wide use at the time. [https://images.app.goo.gl/dZmwYmqW8kKNQeEc6](https://images.app.goo.gl/dZmwYmqW8kKNQeEc6) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/91 "2023-12-07T20:03:47Z")
It occurs to me that, if there are African Americans in the conversation, “I owned you!” could be problematic. I think “pwn” is less likely to provoke an emotional reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/92 "2023-12-10T00:13:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There’s controversy as to how it’s pronounced. Some say it’s just “own.” I and my friends say it as “pone.” I think some even say it as “pawn.” It’s certainly an interesting linguistic case. Usually, with new coinages, it’s clear how it’s pronounced, but there’s some debate about the spelling at first. With “pwn”, though, the origin was in a textual format, and so the spelling is completely definite, but the pronunciation is ambiguous. Though “pone” does seem to have emerged as the standard. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/93 "2023-12-10T00:32:07Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > (actually, most often as “pwned” as in “you got pwned!”) pwnt also shows up occasionally as a shortening of pwned. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/94 "2023-12-10T03:39:06Z")
The Welsh sometimes use W for the “oo” sound, so it could be pronounced “poon” and “pooned”. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/95 "2023-12-10T04:07:18Z")
So **PWNTANG** would be right out. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/96 "2025-12-08T19:27:22Z")
Bumped. SCOTUS declines to take the case: > **[Supreme Court rejects free speech case over controversial vanity plate](https://www.aol.com/articles/supreme-court-declines-free-speech-143453590.html)** > > A Tennessee license plate was revoked because it may have referred to sexual domination. The Supreme Court has declined to weigh in. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/97 "2025-12-08T19:46:29Z")
Since we’re updating: Mr Grabher lost his appeal in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 2021, and the Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal n 2022. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-lorn-grabher-license-plate-loses-appeal-1.6151452](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-lorn-grabher-license-plate-loses-appeal-1.6151452) > **[Supreme Court won’t hear appeal of Nova Scotia man’s ‘Grabher’ licence plate...](https://globalnews.ca/news/8689904/grabher-supreme-court-appeal-licence-plate/)** > > The Supreme Court of Canada won't hear an appeal by a Nova Scotia man who was seeking to reverse the revocation of a personalized licence plate bearing his surname, 'Grabher.' ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542/98 "2025-12-09T06:42:05Z")
> [@Tigrman699](#): > > In Florida, I had the DMV revoke my vanity plate “XTAZY”.which I placed on the back of my Nissan 300ZX, as promoting the use of an illegal substance. They were wrong about my intention and its meaning but I understood why they revoked it after considering their position. My father’s 300ZX had ZZZEXY as his (Ontario) vanity plate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-offensive-about-this-vanity-license-plate/945542.md?page=4)