pwnonym

Guest   Fri May 11, 2007 12:55 am GMT
I've read of "pwnonym" meaning "A word originating from a typo of another word." How is this pronounced and where exactly does it come from? What's the etymology?
Guest   Fri May 11, 2007 1:25 am GMT
That's a made up word. It comes from "pwn", which is a misspelling of the word "own". I don't know if there is any proper pronunciation for "pwn", but people where I live pronounce it as "pone".
Josh Lalonde   Fri May 11, 2007 1:31 am GMT
I've never seen this exact word, but 'pwn' and 'pwned' were fairly popular around my high school a few years ago. They originate from 'own' and 'owned' respectively; 'p' is of course just to the right of 'o' and a likely typo for it. They are pronounced like 'own', etc. 'Pwnonym' would be like 'ownonym'.
Guest   Fri May 11, 2007 1:32 am GMT
Yep, I'd also say it's derived from "pwned" which is pronounced "owned" or "poned".

"Pwned" is a term that was made up by a map designer for the internet game Warcraft. When a player lost to his opponent in a game which was conducted in the designer's maps, the resultant message would be "<Player> has been pwned"... "pwned" being a typo for "owned", meaning subdued. When used as an interjection, it's a much stronger form of "touché!"
Lazar   Fri May 11, 2007 1:46 am GMT
Yeah, "pwn" was used in my high school as well. ;-) As the other posters have indicated, "pwn" is generally pronounced to rhyme with "own".
Guest   Fri May 11, 2007 1:57 am GMT
Are there any other pwnonyms in English besides "pwn"?
Josh Lalonde   Fri May 11, 2007 2:11 am GMT
<<Are there any other pwnonyms in English besides "pwn"?>>

There's 'teh' from 'the', though I don't think it has any difference in meaning other than trying to be funny. That's all I can think of right now.
Guest   Fri May 11, 2007 2:14 am GMT
I guess "teh" is another one. It comes from "the", but it's used in weird ways, like "That is teh suxx0rz." instead of "That sucks."
Lazar   Fri May 11, 2007 2:14 am GMT
Among my friends in high school, "teh" sometimes occurred in speech, pronounced [t_hE].
Lazar   Fri May 11, 2007 2:19 am GMT
<<There's 'teh' from 'the', though I don't think it has any difference in meaning other than trying to be funny.>>

Actually I think it does have a distinct meaning. For example, if something is <really awesome>, you could say that it's "teh awesome". Or if something <really sucks>, you could say that it's "teh suxxorz". When my friends used it in high school, it was always in this manner; I don't think they ever actually used it as a substitute for "the". In this respect, "teh" reminds me of the Spanish neuter article "lo", which is used to turn adjectives into abstract nouns, like "lo bueno".
Josh Lalonde   Fri May 11, 2007 11:01 am GMT
Yeah, you're right. I just haven't heard 'teh' for a while, so I forgot all the intricacies of its use.