When exactly did the most commonly used meaning of “FTW” become “for the win”?
Since I am old, and have also been a member of the motorcycling and biker communities (I say both motorcycling and biker because to me, while those communities definitely overlap, they are not the same) for quite a while now, the original meaning of “FTW” – “f**k the world” – is still the one that first pops into my head. I don’t know if it actually originated amongst outlaw bikers, or if it was just most frequently used by them during my impressionable years.
I may have been living under a rock, but I really didn’t notice this until a few weeks ago. I was reading an online forum that I don’t normally frequent, and came across several usages of “FTW” that made no sense at all when the original breakdown of the acronym was plugged in. I went in search of an explanation and that is when I found that “FTW” doesn’t mean “FTW” any more to a fair number of people, mostly those who are way younger than I am.
Language evolves over time, and I guess acronyms do, too. I’m not saying this is good or bad, but it sure was confusing to me at first. I do have to admit a bit of relief at learning the alternate meaning. Some of the forum posts which had me confused were on political topics and it was a bit disconcerting to see what I first read as “[insert political candidate name] f**ck the world!”
Aside from that, to some it apparently means “f**k the what” as in “WTF” backwards, but that is just dumb. I will digress for a moment though. I have lived in two places where the “th” sound is not acknowledged (Honolulu – as in “Da Kine Talk” and Chicago – as in “Da Bearss” and “Da Bullss”). At my workplace, we actually use “WDF” to flag things that need further clarification. A “WDF” Post-It on an expense report item, for example, would not be a welcome sight. Oh, yes: “WDF” as in “what da f**k” in case it wasn’t glaringly obvious. Like I said, no “th” here.
Hotch Potchery says
Yeah, FTW is an obscure Hollywood Squares reference…if you didn’t watch it a bunch, the “for the win” probably wouldn’t make much sense. It was on Big Bang a few weeks ago, and I loved it. I am sarcastic, so I LOVE “for the win”. If I want to include the ‘f’ word…which I do, a lot, I use WTF…but I like WDF as well.
kathi says
I grew up with “Hollywood Squares” (Paul Lynde as the center square) but for whatever reason I just never connected the phrase with the acronym, even though it makes perfect sense after the fact 🙂