pwnt as past participle of pwn (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Chris F Waigl]

Dave Robertson wrote:
> More in the reasonably extensive article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet.
> There it's pointed out that "-t" is a popular past participle in Leet.
>
> Leetspeak could present some neat problems for lexicographers, given its
> nonstandard spellings and character mappings.  But certain Leet expressions
> like "pwn" and "teh sex" are undeniably popular, and are widely recognized
> in non-Leet spellings.  (That is, without any funny symbols.)
>
> --Dave R  or  )@\/3,
> who notes the resemblance of Leet to 1890s typewriter art, as found in The
> [Philadelphia] Stenographer magazine.
>
>
>

My guess is that the -t suffix avoids introducing a vowel (if only a
vowel letter) into a word that is otherwise vowel-less.

Chris Waigl

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