on 'ownage'

One of the weirder words of internet slang, commonly referred to as netspeak, is to "own" something or someone.

The literal definition of "to own" means "to take possession", but as is the case with netspeak, the literal definition gets thrown right out the window.

Own in netspeak means either win, wins, won, defeat, or defeated. Which is used depends on how it's phrased.

The weirdness comes into play on the expectation you're supposed to magically know whether own is used to denote a win or a defeat.

Weirdness also comes into play when the o is replaced with a p, like pwned. The reason this happened is because p happens to be directly at right of the o on the keyboard. Someone years ago typed pwn instead of own and it stuck.. unfortunately.

The weirdest however is ownage. This word is not real and was 100% born and bred as netspeak. Defining ownage it isn't easy. The word can either mean "single victory in which the way it happened was remarkable", "many victories" or "strategy".

If you used the literal definition of own on the internet, people would consider you creepy.

Acceptable: "I OWN YOU! HAHA!"
Unacceptable: "I POSSESS YOU! HAHA!"

Acceptable: "I'M OWNING THIS GUY!"
Unacceptable: "I'M POSSESSING THIS GUY!"

Acceptable: "THAT GUY JUST GOT OWNED! HAHA!"
Unacceptable: "THAT GUY JUST GOT POSSESSED! HAHA!"

Netspeak'd own is just weird. All I think of when I hear it is Martin Short saying "I'M POSSESSED!" See video below.