pwned: do you pronounce it as "pohned" "pawned" or "owned"
from khepri@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 10 Nov 2025 21:55
https://lemmy.world/post/38625257
from khepri@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 10 Nov 2025 21:55
https://lemmy.world/post/38625257
Let’s get mad like the gif days.
#nostupidquestions
threaded - newest
“Powned”, long o
Yes It’s just “Owned” with a “P” at the beginning. P-Owned.
Same way you pronounce “Boned”.
That’s what she said
BONE!
Your description made me read it like “pooned” at first.
The “G” in “gif” is the same as the “G” in “garage”
It’s also the same “G” in George…
Also the G in garbage.
Also the G in gyro.
oh don’t you dare start that shit we’ll be here all day
hif lol
jaragge
Sounds fancy, I only have a car-hole. :(
Jarrajee
I was about to say that garage doesn’t have the wrong “g” for GIF, but then I realized that some people might be ending “Garage” with an actual “j” sound
What a mess of a word now that I look at it. Two Gs pronounced differently, an “E” at the end that does not effect the second “A” (as in Rag vs. Rage). Like imagine trying to pronounce that word if you’ve never seen it, or spell it if you’d only heard it
This is why I prefer “car hole”
I prefer car hole too, but don’t tell me wife.
I mean as long as you knew the word age you’d probably pronounce it in a more stilted way, but similar to british people. Gare - age. American english is just weird because Gare becomes Gurr and age becomes odge.
Oh yeah I didn’t even consider “gare - adge” vs “gar - ahj” or however the heck you would try and spell the difference in the way it’s pronounced. Every time I think about it, I’m so grateful that I don’t have to try and learn English as an adult…
…pOWNed
Player-Owned
P-Owned
Powned
Just for the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know, this is not the actual etymology.
It just started as a misspelling of “owned” (with p and o being next to each other on the keyboard).
Correct, which is why it should be pronounced just like the word that was meant to be typed, only replacing the "o" with a "p" sound. It wasn't that hard to figure out when it became a thing, people just like word drama.
Huh, I legit thought thought thats how we got it. Never been important enough to look into it.
That’s true, but I would argue that the player owned definition of it came so quickly on the heels of the typo that both could count as valid, with the caveat that the first usage being a typo would have to be considered a mistake, rather than the coining of the slang term itself.
Which is stretching things a bit, but still fun to think about.
As it’s written. Pwned. No need to stick an extra “o” or “a” or any other vowel in between.
It says “pwned”, so “pwned” it is.
Which brings us back to where we started:
How exactly do you pronounce pwned?
Like tomato.
I sometimes see people saying “pronounce it like it’s the name of a Greek philosopher” or “pronounce it as if it was Spanish”.
There’s a “p”, a “w”, an “n”, an “e” and a “d”. Say those in a row. “As if it was Spanish”, to make sure that e is really e and not i.
PuWoNed?
Drop the u and o away from between and you’ve got it :)
This guy!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
pwnedcles
Pee-double-you-NED!
Like pwnd, which is something like pünd or /pʊnd/
you gotta remember most people on here are not estonian so you gotta make it easy for the folks who need to insert extra letters just to not do a diphthong
Pwned rhymes with boned.
Owned with a P sound in front.
Powned.
It’s one of the first internet slang words I ever heard spoken over voice chat and it was always pronounced this way.
I have heard people mispronounce it various other ways on purpose, ironically, as mockery, but I agree that depends on people knowing there's a correct pronunciation in the first place, which there is, as you've accurately described.
Puh-Win-Nuh-Ed
“Pernonin”, as in “grannies are pernonin noobs”
After not knowing for ages, I recently discovered it was pronounced pooned. The W is pronounced the same as in Welsh.*
I’m def saying “pooned” from now on. I’m going to tell people it originated from Moby Dick and is short for “harpooned” 🤣🤣 Get 'Pooned ye Noob Whale!
pwelshned
Considering that it began as a typo of owned, this shouldn't be hard to figure out.
Excuse me, this is the internet. There is nothing that can’t be made into extreme controversy.
Pronounced “owned.” 1337 speak is cringe but thems the rules.
I agree, although looks like you and I stand pretty much alone in this among all these “hack-zors” lol
It’s okay they’ve been wrong for decades, must sting.
Yup.
Correct. Written as pwned, pronounced “owned”
teh_pwnerer says so Source
Poond
On pure pwnage they pronounced it ‘owned’
Yeah, that’s how we’d say it when actually gaming. “Total ownage” man was that fun to yell at your friends while the four of you clustered around a CRT playing Halo on a 4-way split screen and one controller was always the garbage one and mountain dew affected you like cocaine…
Poned, but occasionally pew-ned for reasons
That’s not a word I say out loud.
pwand or p-wand (pee wand)
pohned is correct.
It’s pronounced pwned, as all right thinking people know
like the chess piece with eight on each side. The one that can be promoted to any other non-king piece once it gets to the other side. pwned is getting your data leaked, being “pawned” means getting taken advantage of/being puppeted by a higher power, and I always linked that to being scammed through a phishing attack (and usually your data has been leaked, you have been pwned)
being angry on the internet is one thing, you have to give evidence to support your argument
Yup, I also think of chess when I read it, so pawned - turned into a pawn, demoted to the weakest piece, etc.
If I read owned, then it’s owned.
shocking content
Pineapple on pizza is correct
vim is better than emacs
debian is the best linux distro
startrek is a bad show
Pow ( like bow wow) + Ned (like Ned Stark)
Who pronounces pwned
NERDS!
I bet you pronounce gif wrong, too.
I pronounce it “Pee-owned”. It adds even more insult to the injury I think.
It is pronounced like pony; pown.
This isn’t even a debate. It’s canon. “Pooned” like poon is a comedic acceptable variant.
Pown’d.
This clip from Brooklyn 99 uses what I consider to be the only two acceptable pronunciations. The first obviously the silly way, the second the proper.
I say “pownt”.
pawned, as “pawn” from “pawn shop”, and “ned” same as the name
Wait, it’s not pronounced pffned?
Poownd obviously
P-you-nd - cus it’s fun to say
Like this pure pwnage
Shameful to not link the original series, but I fully agree, it’s definitely pronounced “owned”, and anyone who says otherwise is a massive noob
I don’t pronounce it.
I say pwned, but I think pwned is also an acceptable pronunciation. But if you say it like pwned, you’re dead to me.
“pfned”
Pwooned
As owned with a “puh” on the front, but not as an extra syllable.
Poowned