User:PownedThemNoobs

Pwn (below: Various pronunciations) is a leetspeak slang term derived from the verb "own",  as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival, used primarily in the Internet-based video game culture to taunt an opponent who has just been soundly defeated (e.g., "You just got pwned!"). It was popular among Counter-Strike gamers before spreading through the more general Internet world. The past tense and past participle, pwned, may also be spelled: pwnd, pwn'd, pwn3d, pwnt, poned, pawned, or powned.

In hacker jargon, pwn means to compromise or control, specifically another computer (server or PC), web site, gateway device, or application. It is synonymous with one of the definitions of hacking or cracking. The Pwnie Awards are awarded by a group of security researchers.

Popularity of the term among teenagers rose in the mid-2000s, with the spread from the Internet written form to use in spoken language.

Etymology
The word pwn most likely came about as a common typo of the word "own" because the "p" and "o" keys are adjacent on a standard English keyboard.

Pronunciations
'Pwn' has no generally accepted pronunciation: renditions include.

Even though the word pwn appears as early as 1989, because it is primarily used in written form, it has no single accepted pronunciation. Originally, 'pwn' and its variants were pronounced ) in the same way as the derived verb 'own'; the tail of the 'p' being "silent". A notable usage of this pronunciation can be seen in the Internet distributed series Pure Pwnage (pronounced "pure ownage", ).

Where speakers vocalize the "p", pronunciations include "pone", "pwen", "pawn", "pun" and "pwone".

Only two words in English have a "w" as a vowel; both are Welsh loanwords. A cwm ( to rhyme with "womb") is a cirque in a mountaintop, and a crwth ( to rhyme with "tooth") is a type of lyre. Under this convention "pwn" would be pronounced in the same way as the final syllable of "harpoon".

Notes and references
Pwn Pwn Pwn Pwn