Owned is a slang word,[1][2] that originated among 1990s hackers, where it referred to "rooting" or gaining administrative control over someone else's computer.[3][4]

The term's original usage was close to that of the traditional meaning of the word "own" - for instance, "I owned the network at MIT" indicated that the speaker had cracked the servers and had the same root-level privileges that the legitimate owner of the servers had. "Owned", a later variant, became more common in the late 1990s, as did the more abstract usage referring to any compromised security mechanism. By 1997, "owned" was regularly used in website defacements,[5][6] and it subsequently spread to gaming circles, where it was used to refer to defeat in a game. For example, in Counter-Strike: Source or Call of Duty 4, if someone makes a particularly good kill shot, they might say owned or pwned.

Owned has now spread beyond computer and gaming contexts and become part of standard slang, where it typically entails severe defeat or humiliation, usually in an amusing way or through the dominance of an opposing party.[7] Other variations of the word owned include own3d, 0wn3d and pooned,[7] terms which incorporate elements of leetspeak.

At some point, the variant term "pwned" appeared in the same subculture; this alteration originated from typos that occurred when hasty gamers tried typing too fast on the keyboard, thus missing the "o" and typing "p" instead. Pwn has become a term in its own right but is sometimes still verbally pronounced [oʊn] in recognition of its origin. Some attribute its origin to one particular instance in which Paul Semenets was ridiculing a fellow employee at his workplace by repeatedly typing "pwned" on their computer screen only to be slapped. This *hilarious video was circulated on the web for sometime.

It seems a popular pastime is to write "owned", "pwned", "pwn3d", etc, on pictures depicting humiliation or defeat. There have been several websites dedicated to this such as Owned.com. This site also contains videos of similar situations (many of which can also be found on YouTube). Owned and pwned are mostly used by gamers.