i went into the pit after school today (first performance of the musical was tonight) to find "SHUT THE @?$! UP!!" on paper taped to the trumpet's stands. i instantly knew who did it...the violins have a grudge against us. i put it on their stands and wrote "violins sound like the devil" before the musical we go down there and they are on our seats with stuff like "violins are teh 1337" on it.

I overheard someone talking about "noobs" the other day, I almost choked on my lunch when I heard it.

my conclusion is that we have to evolve the language so people no longer follow it again

what? i say stuff like noob and pwn in everyday talk, what's so bad about that, i ain't no 1337 talker but i don't see anything WRONG with it

ok ok I have to ask...

What does "pwn" mean?

1337 talkers have a strange obsession with adding the letter 'p' to the front of ordinary words to make themselves look more, well, 1337 (Don't be a legend in your own mind). Either that or they like prawns.


@Wolfy- Enjoy your time in the musical. I got to do that last year, unfortunately the pick for this year is Grease, and doesn't allow for more than a half dozen players, none of which are me. All we ever did in the pit was melt gummy bears on the stand lights and throw them at people, or just stick them to the walls and ceilings.

Okay, how do pronounce pwn though... its 3, consonants

I always thought it was like pawn?

I can't remember why, but the other day, I was thinking about reincarnation, but I couldn't remember the word, so I was thinking like..."when people respawn"
and immediately after...wth...did I just think that.

I can't believe it!

I've always pronounced pwn as "pown" or "poan" to be more precise. Sad thing is, our latin class uses that in everyday speech (there are 8 students, compare that to my history class with 66, and this is a high school).

Example: Veni, Vidi, Vici = I came, I saw, I pwned.

I do believe that Eh Steve has the correct interpretation. However, since the vast number of n00b translators out there are not accompanied by pronunciation guides, there is no way to find out without coming into actual contact with one of these 1337 infected individuals, which is something that should not be done under any circumstances, even in the interest of science.

Actually, there is no one correct way to pronounce "pwn". I've seen variations including 'pawn', 'pwunn', 'pween' (not sure why) and, of course, 'own'. I think 'own' is the more usual pronounciation, after all, it is just a stylish misspelling, not intended to be a different word.


I'm not evil, I'm morally challenged

I rather agree with TET here...
It could, logically, be a mispelling that has perpetuated itself...
the character 'P' is actually adjacent to the character 'O' on Qwerty keyboards, thus, someone tries to say:
owned
mispells, and suddenly:
pwned

likely the misspelt version looked good and perpetuated itself as a variant to 'own', rather, people now 'pwn'

Edited by - Arania - PFY on 3/3/2006 5:20:29 PM

So long as this doesn't spill too far into reality. After all, when your insurance agent comes and asks "Do you want to insure anything you pwn?" Or, the salesman says, "Excuse me sir, do you pwn a car?"

Need I mention Pure Pwnage? This is pretty much 1337 spilling into the Real World(tm) ad nauseam. It's also pretty funny.