Own and pwn in English: are you one of us?

The English verb to own, generally used to indicate that something belongs to a particular person or thing, has acquired in Internet speak a specific or more specialized meaning related to defeating one's opponents. The origin of this use, though quite blurred (as, unfortunately, many linguistic developments occur in ephemeral or untraceable websites) appears to lie in online games, where it is synonymous with winning a round or game, as in ‘iFootnote ²owned him at boxing and pretty much all wii games’.Footnote ³

Remarkably enough, this form (i.e. own) alternates with pwn (in all its tenses, i.e. owned/pwned, owning/pwning), due to a phenomenon which has scarcely been reported in English (and probably in any language): the alternation of letters ‘o’ and ‘p’, due to their proximity in keyboards (see, for instance, Blashki & Nichol, Reference Blashki and Nichol2005; Tavosanis, Reference Tavosanis2007). These variations only affect spelling, since forms with ‘p’ (as in pwn) are mainly or only used in writing, Netspeak being primarily a written language. However, even though pwn was first conceived as a variant of own, the two apparently synonymous forms have somehow rapidly become specialized in meaning and restricted to some contexts. More specifically, because of the group feeling created by slang, pwn is sometimes used as a sign of belonging to the group, i.e. people writing pwned are accepted as members of the gaming group, whereas those using ‘owned’ ‘are designated with the term noob (or newbie) or lamer, meaning someone new’ (Blashki & Nichol, Reference Blashki and Nichol2005: 83).

Another interesting phenomenon concerning own and its derivative forms is that, like other words from ‘leetspeak’ or ‘elitespeak’, some of its elements are replaced by numeric characters, and it is therefore spelled sometimes 0wn3d or pwn3d (like other usual terms, such as g33k or tro11, instead of geek and troll). This number-letter replacement is also found in the borrowed or adapted forms of the word in other languages, as we shall comment on below.

Own in Spanish

Influenced by the English ‘gaming’ slang in the Internet, the verb own and its variant or derivative forms (either verbal ones or its ‘derivatives’ functioning mainly as nouns or adjectives) have been incorporated into Spanish Netspeak. Semantically speaking, Spanish has introduced it with two meanings: (1) its original and quite general sense, i.e. ‘beating/defeating someone’ (but also ‘beaten/defeated by someone’), as in Herculesowned,Footnote ⁴ and (2) a specialized meaning in discussion forums, that is, giving an argument which ridicules an opponent, usually expressed as in ownear, or, as seen by the ‘victim’, llevarse un owned (e.g. ‘Opino que cada uno escucha en su coche lo que le da la gana y que tú te has llevado un owned’Footnote ⁵ [‘I think that one may listen to whatever they want in their car and that you have been owned’]). As a clear example of code-switching, the form own (but also its variants) replaces other options in Spanish, such as derrotar, vencer or even ridiculizar, because it is felt to be more expressive and more apt for the context (in other words, ser owneado or llevarse un owned is probably more humiliating or ‘stronger’ than quedar en ridículo).

Quite remarkable is the fact that there is a high degree of hesitation among speakers and even within the same speakers, as regards the use of the unadapted anglicism (e.g. owned) and partially adapted forms (e.g. owneado), even in the same context, as in:

The form owned usually appears in its participial form, sometimes even fully integrated in the Spanish verb phrase in a highly marked code-switching manner, as in ‘ya te he owned 2 veces’ [‘I have already owned you twice’].Footnote ⁷ This variant seems to have been easily introduced and welcomed by the Spanish Netspeak community, who even allow it to inflect for comparative and superlative forms, creating a partially adapted unit, as in ‘OWNEDISIMO’.Footnote ⁸

Similarly, it is also frequent to come across partially adapted verbal forms, such as the verb ownear and its derivates:

Ownear alternates with other periphrases formed by ‘empty’ verbs and the unadapted participial form, such as meter/hacer/echar un owned (on this see below). However, there are also partially adapted inflectional quasi-synonymous forms and derived forms from owned and ownear: for the ‘victim’, owneado may be found (e.g. ‘10 reglas basicas de como llamar la atención en un foro y terminar siendo un owneado’ [‘10 basic rules on how to draw attention to oneself in a forum and end up being owned’]);Footnote ¹⁰ for the agent, owneador (e.g. ‘es un owneador nato y una vez mas me ha hecho morder el polvo de manera humillante’ [‘he's a born owner, and once again he's made me bite the dust in a humiliating way’]);Footnote ¹¹ and, finally, for the action itself, an owneamiento (e.g. ‘lo que tu piensas que fue un owneamiento’ [‘what you think was an owning’]),Footnote ¹² an owneo (e.g. ‘tira a matar hasta despues q le hace un owneo epico a su oponente’ [‘he shoots to kill until later, when he gives his opponent an epic owned’]),Footnote ¹³ or an owneado (e.g. ‘xDDDD vaya owneado jajajaja’ [‘xDDDD what an owned hahahaha’]).Footnote ¹⁴

Interestingly enough, and similarly to English usage, alphanumeric characters like ‘0’ and ‘3’ are also found in Spanish (a fact that might be treated as an anglicism in itself) either in adapted or unadapted forms, as in ‘El Barcelona no está lider porque fue 0wneado por el Hércules’ [‘Barcelona is not in the lead because it was 0wned by Hercules’]Footnote ¹⁵ or ‘Nos acaba de own3ar’ [‘He's just owned us’],Footnote ¹⁶ or ‘puta que la cagaro vettel y kubica, un 0wned para ambos!’ [‘vettel and kubika bloody fucked up, an 0wned for both of them’].Footnote ¹⁷

Apart from those forms and functions, the word may also be used as a noun,Footnote ¹⁸ as an unadapted borrowing (‘eso ha sido un owned depende por donde lo veas pero es un owned’ [‘that was an owned, it depends on how you look at it, but it is an owned’]),Footnote ¹⁹ or partially adapted, with proper Spanish inflectional plural markers (e.g. ‘tranquilos hamijos, que tenemos margen para repartir owneds hasta que nos cansemos’ [‘don't worry my friends, we have room to give owneds until we get tired of it’]),Footnote ²⁰ with augmentative suffixes (e.g. ‘De ser asi esto no seria un owned. ke seria un OWNEDAZO o algo asi’ [‘should that be the case, this would not be an owned, but a massive owned, or something like that’])Footnote ²¹ or even with(in) intensifying phrases such as ‘pedazo de’, ‘cacho de’, ‘como una casa’, etc.

Although owned is extremely popular, other unadapted forms are also present in Spanish. For example, the deverbal noun ‘owning’, which is also used in English (‘you'd think he was a random noob in need of an owning’)Footnote ²² is frequent in Spanish, and alternates as a noun with ‘owned’, as can be clearly seen in the following two examples:

Note that owning in Spanish is supported by the extreme popularity of the -ing morpheme in that language, either in genuine anglicisms (e.g. ‘phishing’) or in false anglicisms, such as ‘foring’ (using internet forums, as in ‘eso de que soy adicto “al foring” me trae siempre coñas’ [‘my being addicted to “foring” has always made me a laughing stock’]).

Word-formation or word creativity with owned in Spanish: compounds and blends

Of all the forms we have seen, it seems that the participle owned has become the most favoured one in Spanish Netspeak, usually as the elliptical form of the whole sentence ‘[You have been] owned’ or ‘[I have] owned [you]’. Once the word has become an everyday ‘tool’ in the Internet (subject to semantic changes, meaning specialization and formal changes including those resulting from word-formation or word creativity), the next step is to use it as an element for humorous word-formation, although there is already a jocular component in the use of the alphanumeric writing we mentioned earlier, or in other graphic games, such as hyphenation (‘Menudo O-W-N-E-D te has comido amiga’ [‘that's a good O-W-N-E-D you've just eaten up, my friend’]).Footnote ²⁵ Of course, this is a common occurrence in English, where puns are made (usually with blends and compounds; on the differences between these two processes see, for example, Bauer, Reference Bauer1983) using the word, as in Ronaldowned, i.e. ‘owned by Ronaldo’ (‘Last I knew Ronaldo had a knee injury but still pwned Germany with 2 goals in the Final. RONALDOWNED’),Footnote ²⁶Fabio Capellowned Footnote ²⁷ etc.

As in English, compounds and blends with ‘owned’ are used in Spanish as an extremely condensed version of two alternative patterns: ‘X has owned someone’ or ‘X has been owned’. Here are a few examples of the two patterns (which, in some cases, render the compound incomprehensible without a context):

‘X has owned someone’:

‘X has been owned’:

Within this last pattern, special mention must be made of the puns with José Mourinho, the former coach of FC Porto, Chelsea FC and FC Internazionale Milano, who at the time of writing is the coach of Real Madrid. After Real Madrid was defeated 5–0 by arch-rivals FC Barcelona in November 2010, there was an avalanche of humorous remarks on him in sports websites, with Spaniards using interesting blends like Mownedrinho or MOWNED, which we shall now analyse in more detail.

Puns with the whole name may be created by (1) ‘implanted’ or ‘non-contiguous blending’ (see Algeo, Reference Algeo1977), as in Mownedrinho. Note that this is scarcely a new invention, since it had been used earlier in football forums; in September 2010, for example, instances like ‘Descuida, Mownedrinho se lo cree’ [‘Don't worry, Mownedrinho believes it’]Footnote ³⁵ could already be found, or (2) consecutive overlap, as in (‘Mourinhowned’). In English, the agent-victim ambiguity existed, since in some examples, Mourinhowned means ‘Mourinho owns someone’, as in ‘Just watched Man U get Jose MourinhOWNED on their own turf’,Footnote ³⁶ when Mourinho's Chelsea beat Manchester United, whereas in other cases, it means ‘Mourinho gets owned’, as in ‘EPIC MOURINHOWNED’Footnote ³⁷ (when Mourinho's Real Madrid lost to Barcelona).

Regarding puns with Mourinho's clipped nickname, Mou, the final diphthong is ideal for blending, as its pronunciation easily allows us to create items with complete overlap, either with a Spanish element (‘orgasmou’, ‘perro ladrador, poco mourdedor’ [‘His bark is much worse than his “mou-bite”’], ‘qué emoucion’ [‘how mou-exciting’]')Footnote ³⁸ or with two English elements, but also by Spanish speakers (‘game mouver’).Footnote ³⁹ The overlap with owned was almost obligatory, and is almost a complete one in Mowned, as in ‘Se va a llevar un Mowned’ [‘He is going to get a Mowned’].Footnote ⁴⁰ Indeed, the pun Mowned has become something of an icon, and hundreds of images have been created for the occasion; many of them are used as signatures in Internet forums.

From the formal point of view, it must be pointed out that, although the infinitive ‘own’ would be more suitable for overlapping (‘Mou’ + ‘Own’ = ‘Mown’, and therefore ‘Mownrinho’), all the puns are based on the participle owned. It might be argued that this is intended to avoid confusion with the participle mown in English, but this in itself does not explain the prevalence of mowned over mown in other languages, such as Spanish. In our opinion, the prevalence of mowned is due to the relative higher frequency of owned over own, which we commented on earlier. Also, it is interesting to see that, as is usually the case with slang used by highly restricted groups, only those interested in football will be able to recognize these puns without a context, as witness the fact that somebody starting a thread by ‘Entras, pones un Mowned y te vas’ [‘You enter, leave a Mowned and leave’]Footnote ⁴¹ receives answers such as ‘Mowned, que es eso??’ [‘Mowned, what is that? ’]. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that this form is also dependent on the context (linguistic, chronological) for its meaning, because ‘mowneado’ has been used in the past (when Mourinho's Inter eliminated Barcelona and qualified for the European Cup finals), as ‘has sido mowneado’ [‘you have been mowned’].

Final remarks

As all the examples of own (and its variants and derived forms) above have suggested, Internet language constitutes an interesting field of analysis and research due to a number of reasons, which include its constant modification and development, the rapid expansion of changes and new coinages, and the coexistence, code-switching and mutual borrowing between English and other languages, especially from the former. The naturalness and immediacy of this medium, the world wide web, give rise to interesting proposals by users, whose knowledge of various languages enables them to quickly create new hybrid words between languages, sometimes as mere borrowings, or, as we have seen, as full-fledged puns.