Speaking Teenager
Each generation has their own language. My parents said things like “groovy” and “far out.” My generation said things like “cool beans” and “don’t have a cow.” Kids today say things like “s’up?” and “why you all up in my grill?”
I thought I had today’s lingo down. I can say “s’up” like the best of them. I’m down wit dat. But recently I have started to hear some new words I had never heard before. Weird words.
When my kids beat me at a video game (which happens often) they holler, “I pwned you.” And when their brother is bothering them they tell him, “You’re such a noob.” Pwned? Noob? What is this foreign language?
And that’s when I knew. I knew I was no spring chicken anymore. I had turned in to my parents. I no longer speak the language. Now I’m just trying to decipher what in the heck my kids are saying to me. Excuse me while I sit over here and study this teen slang dictionary.
Don’t worry, it’s not that new. It is gamer/internet slang.
pwned is a deliberate misspelling of Owned. more detail here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwned. Several myths as to it’s origin.
noob or newbie is generally derogatory term for new or inexperienced players. Used mostly in online multi player games. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noob it may have been used in the Vietnam War.
Talking with a friend, he shared the same challenge. “I’m lucky,” he said, “to get monosyllabic utterances (s’up and nah)”. Yes, I’m in agreement with you. The language is changing. Found an interesting post about text messaging and learning the language here: http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/01/look_mom_you_can_text_too.html
Far out!
I can’t even figure out how to pronounce “pwned!” Go figure…
My boys say this ALL the time (pwnd or pwnage) and I didn’t know it actually had an origin or a definition above what THEY think it means. When I’ve tried to spell it so that pronounciation is implied, I’ve used “ponage”. I actually prefer this now since apparently it’s taked from “owned” or “ownage”. Man, this makes much more sense now when I hear “I totally pwned you”. This keeps me with a few steps of being on the same page with them instead of being in the next zip code most the time!
Or how about the newest thing with texting. So now our kids say things like OMG, or IDK, or whatev….