What does pwn mean in texting

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Log in Sign Up. And how do you say it? More Words At Play. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Oct. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Nov. Time Traveler. Love words? Need even more definitions? Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? The earliest use of the word pwn might come from a game of chess in , decades before the internet was invented. Chess grandmaster and author Raymond Dennis Keene posted a thread on the Chess Games forum where he claims Euwe told him that Alekhine was sober during their infamous game.

Keene also never mentioned anything about Alekhine's alleged smack talk, which leads me to believe this is more folklore than reality. The advent of digital computing in the s resulted in a generation of programmers who attempted to create a machine that could play chess.

Computer science students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT in the s turned developing the best chess-play program into a friendly competition. At this point, pwn allegedly meant to demote or dethrone someone, but the slang was quickly picked up by early computer-users that exchanged messages on FidoNet, a system created in the s for exchanging emails or text on digital bulletin boards.

This is where pwn slowly transformed into the insult we know today.