<html>I used to think that "Owens", my last name since I married 42 years ago, was free from being turned into a "swear word", unlike most names that were vulnerable; but one day some tough little girls (4-6 years old) in our neighborhood sat on a railroad tie by the basketball hoop, their Big Wheels parked nearby, and chanted at my older boys: "Owens duh Wo-wens!" to their chagrin and embarrassment. Linda PS The name should be Owen without the S but was added as D's grandfather came through immigration at Boston. He was Welsh, and the immigration officer was probably Irish.<BR><BR>---------- Original Message ----------<BR>From: Nicolas Ward <ultranurd@gmail.com><BR>To: fictionary@swarpa.net<BR>Subject: Re: [Fictionary] New Word: latten<BR>Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:29:16 -0500<BR><BR>On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Ellen Sasse <ellen.sasse@yahoo.com> wrote:<BR>><BR>> --- On Mon, 12/14/09, Josh Smift <irilyth@infersys.com> wrote:<BR>> > NW> pwnt, v. Gaming slang. Simple past form of "pwn", to beat by a large margin<BR>> > NW> - http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pwn<BR>> > NW> * My hope that it would be mistaken for Welsh worked on a number of<BR>> > NW> you, but there are too many other gamers on the list :oP.<BR>> ><BR>> > I am hopeful that this word (and its variants) will come to be pronounced<BR>> > as if it were a Welsh word.<BR>><BR>> I am all for Welsh (it's a beautiful language; even Welsh-accented English is beautiful), but if you pronounce "pwn" with Welsh pronunciation, it's entirely too similar to a word that was disrespectful slang for one of the distinguishing features of the female anatomy, at least when I was growing up;-)<BR>><BR><BR>I usually hear "pownt" (p and t tacked onto "own"), or if people are<BR>being silly, more like "punt". Similar to people who say "plix" or<BR>"plox" to emphasize/mock the please -> plz -> plx shortening + typo.<BR><BR>I was unaware "poon" had a sexual connotation... I thought it was just<BR>a nonsense word.<BR><BR>--Nick</html>
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