[Ads-l] Antedatings of "ownage"

Hugo hugovk at GMAIL.COM
Sat Sep 24 07:39:43 UTC 2016


ownage, n.

OED sense 2.: colloq. (chiefly U.S.). The action or fact of utterly
defeating or gaining supremacy over an opponent or rival. Cf. own v.
8.Originally in the context of video gaming.

OED dates it to 2002 from the alt.games.sf2 Usenet group (sf2 = Street
Fighter 2 computer game).

===

Here's an earlier one.

1999 February 2, Randolph, Gary, “Quake II with Diamond Monster II”,
in alt.games.quake2, Usenet, message-ID
<DXLt2.1218$LV6.9002640 at news.netdirect.net>:

[Begin]
OK so I got a Dimond Monster 3d II and i slid that sucka in and it
seemed to be doing great but now it seems that quake2 will bomb out on
me but the video card wont deinitialize thus i am stuck with a still
screen and the only way to fix it is to reboot do i need new drivers
or is it a setting in quake i need some help here cause with out the
practice my play no longer contains any lighty frosted ownage
[End]

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/alt.games.quake2/r_d5Fc7FTUY/Zt7IC8rTYLcJ

===

Wiktionary's first definition is "(slang) triumph or domination", but
they have a second: "(baseball) When one player has a history of
domination over another player."

Here's a 1998 in a baseball context:

1998 August 9, K, Jack, “Mesa = GAS CAN”, in
alt.sports.baseball.sf-giants, Usenet, message-ID
<35CE80E1.B14B2A97 at pacbell.net>:

[Begin]
On August 23, 1993, the Braves came into San Francisco trailing the
Giants by 7.5 games. The Braves swept the Giants in that pivotal
series, and starting with that series, the Giants have won just 13 out
of 51 games against the Braves. As Mike Krukow likes to say, "That's
some serious ownage."
[End]

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/alt.sports.baseball.sf-giants/12okAo-BOsI/lTOdad_DBMwJ

Mike Krukow is known for using the word "ownage" amongst SF Giants
fans. From 2014:

[Begin]
Nobody’s quite sure when exactly it happened, but at some point in the
last five-to-ten years the phrase “ownage is ownage” entered the San
Francisco Giants lexicon. I don’t know if the phrase is used much
outside of the Giants sphere of influence. Our own Wendy Thurm took a
stab atexplaining ownage a couple years back, but she didn’t get into
its origin. As far as I can tell, the phrase was introduced to Giants
fans by color commentator, Mike Krukow. This makes sense because
studies show that literally everything Giants fans say and think about
baseball was learned from Mike Krukow. That’s just science. If you
don’t agree, well, you can just grab some pine, MEAT.

Ownage itself is simple enough to understand. Sometimes it’s team on
team ownage. Sometimes it’s a certain pitcher versus a certain hitter.
Or vice versa. It happens. These things go in cycles and what goes
around comes around eventually. But sometimes it doesn’t turn around.
That’s ownage. Nobody really knows how ownage works or why it happens.
You can’t explain it. And when the ownage lasts a particularly long
time, or when the owner inflicts incredibly massive amounts of ownage
upon the ownee, well that’s even more difficult to explain. Why even
try? Thus the phrase, ownage is ownage.
[End]

http://www.bayareasportsguy.com/giants-lose-again-prove-krukows-theory-of-ownage/

===

Hugo

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