# How do you pronounce "pwn"?



## Lanlan (Jul 20, 2012)

I heard my roommate say "pawn some noobs" recently and I was like WTF, have I been pronouncing pwn wrong? So I wiki'd it and apparently both "pown" and "pawn" are acceptable pronunciations. How do you guys pronounce it? I'd assume like 99.9% of people say "pown" but I could be wrong.


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## Cyan (Jul 20, 2012)

I mentally pronounce it pawn (I don't speak english so I never pronouce it).
But, I didn't even know the word "pown", nor I don't know how it is pronounced.

to me, both should be pronounced the same. p o n


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## weavile001 (Jul 20, 2012)

pawn

from pown i remember pow from super mario


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## emigre (Jul 20, 2012)

'Pwn' is word that should never be verbalised.

See also 'lol.'


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## Lanlan (Jul 20, 2012)

I always saw it as sort of a typo of "own" or something, my mind just sees it as "pown"


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## Cyan (Jul 20, 2012)

emigre said:


> 'Pwn' is word that should never be verbalised.
> 
> See also 'lol.'


http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/LOL
Pronunciation: /lɒl, ɛləʊˈɛl/

They didn't add pwn yet


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## AlanJohn (Jul 20, 2012)

"Pwn" is the retardation of the word "own". You see, in online video games (especially the ones that 10 y.o's play) whenever someone kills someone, they say "Owned!". But to make it even more stupid, it was once mis-spelled as "pwned" since the character "P" is right next to "O" on a traditional QWERTY keyboard.

Saying internet slang in real life is stupid and you should feel stupid for doing so.


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## weavile001 (Jul 20, 2012)

AlanJohn said:


> "Pwn" is the retardation of the word "own". You see, in online video games (especially the ones that 10 y.o's play) whenever someone kills someone, they say "Owned!". But to make it even more stupid, it was once mis-spelled as "pwned" since the character "P" is right next to "O" on a traditional QWERTY keyboard.
> 
> Saying internet slang in real life is stupid and you should feel stupid for doing so.



when  i play cod mw3 for wii , i rarely hear someone saiyng "owned" neither pwned , only : se fudeu


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## AlanJohn (Jul 20, 2012)

weavile001 said:


> AlanJohn said:
> 
> 
> > "Pwn" is the retardation of the word "own". You see, in online video games (especially the ones that 10 y.o's play) whenever someone kills someone, they say "Owned!". But to make it even more stupid, it was once mis-spelled as "pwned" since the character "P" is right next to "O" on a traditional QWERTY keyboard.
> ...


Because ironically, the people who play CoD on Wii are more mature than on Xbox.


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## Lanlan (Jul 20, 2012)

Let's not argue, just answer the question and have civil conversation. Or I'll be very very angry.


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## Ace Overclocked (Jul 20, 2012)

Lanlan said:


> Let's not argue, just answer the question and have civil conversation. Or I'll be very very angry.


It's good to see that people on the 'temp still want peaceful and civil conversations, but please no ''i'll get angry'' or anything, it's not a way to calm things down.
To answer the question i imagine it as pown, not like i use it IRL.


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## SifJar (Jul 20, 2012)

It came about as a typo of "own", so I guess "pown" makes sense, but "pawn" is always how it sounds in my head, and there is logic behind that - in chess, the pawn is the weakest piece, and so "pawning" someone in a video game would refer to killing them with a lesser weapon (e.g. a pistol if they had a machine gun or whatever).


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## Depravo (Jul 20, 2012)

How do _I_ pronounce 'Pwn'?

I don't.


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## weavile001 (Jul 20, 2012)

Depravo said:


> How do I pronounce 'Pwn'?
> 
> I don't.


its not possible,http://objection.mrd...o.php?n=5993813

its pawn , peão


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## Hells Malice (Jul 20, 2012)

I always found pwn to be mildly retarded, but I say pown if and when I do ever say it. No other pronunciation makes sense considering it's replacing the word "own".


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## YayMii (Jul 20, 2012)

I normally pronounce it _pown_, but pronouncing it _poon_ is so much cooler.

pooning noobs


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## Taleweaver (Jul 20, 2012)

Easy: I _don't_ pronounce it. The word gets used pretty much exclusively as a means of degrading someone in a gaming competition, and I don't go there. I'll keep it to "gee gee", "nice shot" and things like that. At worst, I'll call a match unbalanced. Usually when it IS (I swear some online people would get a rush from winning a CTF game if the teams were ten players to zero).

Mentally, the word kinda sounds exactly as written: 'pwn'. Somewhat the sound of these kinds of horns produce:










emigre said:


> 'Pwn' is word that should never be verbalised.
> 
> See also 'lol.'


To be fair, "lol" actually is a Dutch word. And it was that way long before the internet coined it.


It means to have fun. ("I'm having fun" is translated as "ik heb lol").


Yeah...we Dutchies were ahead of our time on that one.


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## VmprHntrD (Jul 20, 2012)

I don't, it's a ghetto word so I don't write or say it -- it's just OWN to me and spelled as such.   Just like I refuse to write or say other ghetto words such as the b---g word for jewelry and other flashy accessories, screw that.


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## RchUncleSkeleton (Jul 20, 2012)

I never understood the whole pwn thing and where it came from or why it caught on. I think it's extremely low class and would never use the word myself but I've heard it pronounced p'own (like own with a p at the beginning).


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## Taleweaver (Jul 20, 2012)

RchUncleSkeleton said:


> I never understood the whole pwn thing and where it came from or why it caught on.


Legend would have it, it was from a custom warcraft map. Warcraft lets you type a per-map win condition. The mapper allegedly was too tired and misspelled 'own' (Player 1 pwned player 2).

I guess it spread because of the absurdity, and because p is one MORE than o (which kinda makes 'pwn' better than 'own').


Oh, and I remember a phrase someone mentioned in a similar topic:

"(spoken) We got owned with a capital 'P'".


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## Lanlan (Jul 20, 2012)

Okay, for those who are saying you don't say it in real life, how do you read it? As pown or pawn or what?


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## Vulpes Abnocto (Jul 20, 2012)

If and when I have to read it aloud I simply say "own"...and make a mental note that the person typing it is an idiot.


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## reshx (Jul 20, 2012)

i normaly read this word as peewun


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## RchUncleSkeleton (Jul 21, 2012)

Wever said:


> Oh, and I remember a phrase someone mentioned in a similar topic:
> 
> &quot;(spoken) We got owned with a capital 'P'&quot;.


that phrase is actually quite funny, seeing as it's making fun of the typo spelling.


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## Deleted-236924 (Jul 21, 2012)

I pronounce it "Schweppes."


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## Luigi2012SM64DS (Jul 21, 2012)

Po(like in kung-fu panda po)n


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## The Pi (Jul 21, 2012)

Pawn. Purely because a vowel would naturally have to come after the P. So it can be: Pawn, Pewn, Piwn, Pown or Puwn and only one of the is an actual word so Pawn it is.


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## tbgtbg (Jul 21, 2012)

Own, with a p at the front. The correct way.


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## Tsuteto (Jul 21, 2012)

Owned.  Seriously, that's all their saying.  I allow my friends to yell "pwned" if I do get owned, and I only say "pwn" in the rare blue moon when I'm making a sarcastic remark.  But it's owned, and I firmly believe people should get over this fad.

Someone want to start a movement with me?  I'll make a group on facebook even!


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## pubert09 (Jul 21, 2012)

YayMii said:


> I normally pronounce it _pown_, but pronouncing it _poon_ is so much cooler.
> 
> pooning noobs


Wow, I thought I was the only one that said it that way.
But when I say it, I refer to completing a game to 100%.
It started with pooning the first LEGO Star Wars.


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## ShadowSoldier (Jul 21, 2012)

I pronounce it as own. Hell, go watch the web series Pure Pwnage, you'll thank me.


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## thegame07 (Jul 21, 2012)

I have never actually said it before, only typed it. However If I did say it I would say "pawn" just like you say for the Chess piece.


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## Deleted User (Jul 21, 2012)

1


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## Sicklyboy (Jul 21, 2012)

emigre said:


> 'Pwn' is word that should never be verbalised.
> 
> See also 'lol.'



What about rofl?

rofl


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## .Chris (Jul 21, 2012)

This thread reminds me of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhb89V43KWc


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## Lanlan (Jul 21, 2012)

Thanks for all the votes guys. Figured this would get ignored


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## koimayeul (Jul 21, 2012)

It pronounces "pawn" for me (french).


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## VmprHntrD (Jul 24, 2012)

Vulpes Abnocto said:


> If and when I have to read it aloud I simply say "own"...and make a mental note that the person typing it is an idiot.


This I second since the question was asked 'if' I had to say it...I'd drop the p and note the writer was a moron.


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## s4mid4re (Jul 24, 2012)

I don't really understand why in the world it's even used. Acronyms like 'lol' and such are generally used to shorten keystrokes, but 'pwn' and 'own' have the same number of keystrokes. Besides, it should be much easier to type 'own' (since it's an actual word that should be more familiar to you, but also because I think it's easier to type 'o' with my ring finger than type 'p' with my pinky). Even if you're verbalizing it, 'own' is still shorter than 'pawn' or 'pown.' 

Back on-topic, I mentally pronounce it 'pawn.' I suppose I'm a more phonetic person, so I go with what it looks like.


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## Tom (Aug 2, 2012)

pwune


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## DS1 (Aug 2, 2012)

plasma dragon007 said:


> emigre said:
> 
> 
> > 'Pwn' is word that should never be verbalised.
> ...



Exactly, in linguistics we call this a 'separate lexical entry', meaning that a word, regardless of its meaning, has a completely different meaning in our brains. When we see 'lol' written, we know it means someone thought something was funny (well... sort of), but when someone says, 'for tha lolz!!!!' out loud, it has a nuanced meaning from, 'I did it because I thought people would think it was funny'.

And I mean, I never heard any of this stuff spoken out loud until I started hanging out with hardcore nerds. They say stuff like 'rofl-stomp' and 'get bodied!' all the time, and I know it's just referring to something back on the internet, not something that replaced a word in their normal speech.

Anyway, if I had to read this topic out loud, I would say, "how do you pronounce pown?".

edit - I've heard people say 'pawn' before, but they were probably canadian


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## chains_of_androm (Aug 3, 2012)

I used to hear it as 'pewn'


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## YayMii (Aug 3, 2012)

chains_of_andromeda said:


> I used to hear it as 'pewn'


I don't know how you would say 'pewn'.


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## Rizsparky (Aug 4, 2012)

I dont think its meant to be pronounced.. I usually mentally pronounce it as pawn though. lol


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