v. To dominate another, often in online gaming.
Originally a misspelling, 'pwn' has come to also be considered a contraction of the 'Perfect Own" of an opponent.
History: Pwn first surfaced in online play in 1992 - 1993 when MMORPGs were better known as MUDs. Pwn reached it's peak as a standard term amongst game players around the time of Bungie's Battle.Net (1997-).
Pwn has been absorbed into other common online-originating language mediums since then, such as Leet Speak and Singlish.
Other Uses:
Pwning, Pwnage, Pwned (past tense), Pwnt (past tense).
Originally a misspelling, 'pwn' has come to also be considered a contraction of the 'Perfect Own" of an opponent.
History: Pwn first surfaced in online play in 1992 - 1993 when MMORPGs were better known as MUDs. Pwn reached it's peak as a standard term amongst game players around the time of Bungie's Battle.Net (1997-).
Pwn has been absorbed into other common online-originating language mediums since then, such as Leet Speak and Singlish.
Other Uses:
Pwning, Pwnage, Pwned (past tense), Pwnt (past tense).
by Dann K July 8, 2005
A term that developed as a typo of "own", appearing in various games. Later, it referred to the complete and total destruction or "ownage" of an opponent. Nowadays, it has no genuine meaning and has been seen as punctuation.
Old usage: "Dude, you just totally pwned that guy"
Later usage: "0mg 1 kil u!!11!1! pwnt"
Current usage: A:"If you work on your aim, you will get more kills." B: "pwnt" C: "Yeah, I suppose we need to learn." B: "OMG LURNIN IS FAEL pwnt pwnt pwnt"
Later usage: "0mg 1 kil u!!11!1! pwnt"
Current usage: A:"If you work on your aim, you will get more kills." B: "pwnt" C: "Yeah, I suppose we need to learn." B: "OMG LURNIN IS FAEL pwnt pwnt pwnt"
by Pepsiman May 19, 2009
Dates back to the 60s at MIT. Although the meaning remains the same it was not a typo. It was used competitivly by programers working on chess AI. When one out programmed the others he would refer to himself as King and the others as pawns. It started being used on Fido Net across the BBS world before internet went public, although it was used on the internet between university's at the time.
Def: To PWN or Pawn someone/something means to remove its status, to be made unimportant. It means that you have proved yourself better than another.
Heavily used in Online gameing community.
Def: To PWN or Pawn someone/something means to remove its status, to be made unimportant. It means that you have proved yourself better than another.
Heavily used in Online gameing community.
by Very Old Timer August 14, 2007
To completely dominate an opponent, usually in video games.
To beat beyond recognition.
To make someone your bitch.
Often used with the slang "Noob"
To beat beyond recognition.
To make someone your bitch.
Often used with the slang "Noob"
by M.D.S. August 15, 2005
by Steeplejack March 15, 2010
This originated from people misspelling "own." Own is a verb. It is used in online video games. Usually in FPS or RTS games when someone is killed or beaten in a game by another person in the game. If you tell someone you just killed, "You just got pwned!" Then they will take it very offensively. It was made popular when an employee from "Battle.net" made an error while he was making a map, and he spelled "own" as "pwn", and that is when people started pronouncing it incorrectly as "pone."
by Brian Ferratto April 11, 2006
The word pwn originally comes from the infamous Alexander Alekhine (http://tinyurl.com/9byqo) who was one of the great Grandmasters of Chess. His dominating openings of using his pawns was to control the crucial center spaces of the board. During his matches, Alekhine was known to drink heavily and spout anti-semetic remarks. In a match in 1935 against a Dutch master named Euwe his drinking had gotten the better of him. Before starting the match he said to Euwe in a very broken heavily accented russian voice "I will pawn to your knight" (a common variation of his defense was to box his opponents knights using 2 pawns and his white bishop) which ended up sounding like "Evil pwn you tonight". Unfortunatly for Alehkine he gave away his gameplan which Euwe was able to take advantage of. Alehkine lost the match.
The word pwn has resurfaced from time to time in the chess community. It looks like it has finally found it's place in history along with it's founder Alehkine.
The word pwn has resurfaced from time to time in the chess community. It looks like it has finally found it's place in history along with it's founder Alehkine.
by GunnCat February 8, 2006
