Over the years certain words and phrases have lost their original meanings and come to be understood in a whole new context.
Gay is the primary example of this.
Care free and happy is now a term to describe an individuals sexual orientation.
Others words have a geographical context.
Fanny here in the UK is a slang term for the vagina, while in the US it's a persons buttocks.
Pants in the UK are underwear, while in the US they are trousers.
Now in my household an argument rages and it surrounds the acronym F.T.W.
To me that has, and always will be, Fuck The World, but my son is firm that it means For The Win.
Now while I will quite happily agree that in modern times it is used as For The Win, and is often easily recognised as that within the context that it is used, I will not back down in claiming that originally it was, and can still be used as, Fuck The World.
My son considers that it has never been fuck the world and I'm a doddering old fool who is displaying symptoms of alzheimers and tourettes.
To clarify our positions.
Mines is that if I seen 'The Dwarves FTW' spray painted on a wall then I would presume that it's fuck the world, while if it was say the name of a football team followed by FTW in the lead up to a cup final I would expect it to be for the win.
His position is that both would mean for the win.
Now I know I'm right, but some validation from others would be nice.
So was it fuck the world, and occasionally still used as such?
Or has it always been simply 'for the win' and nothing else?
Oh. this could be interesting.
I saw FTW years ago.....it looks to me like someone did!!!
ReplyDeleteDidn't even know that it was now supposed to stand for For The Win.
ReplyDeleteIt's been an American shorthand for Fuck The World since I became aware of it.
2-0. Hell yeah. FTW ;)
ReplyDeleteYou're old....or should that be we're old. It's for the win now and is a gaming term, but I knew it as fuck the world. You could also mention R&B; that's rhythm and blues to me and the first time I heard a "young person" use it I was mightly impressed that they had good music tastes. Only to be looked at like I was a mad man when I started to name bands.
ReplyDeleteThese things always involve sweary words... always FTP/FTQ for example. Somewhere along the way someone has asked there mum/teacher whatever, what it means and they have cleaned it up,
ReplyDeleteactually I've never come across ftw before so who cares.
FTW predates the world of gaming, so therefore the For The Win comes in late in the day in comparison to the many other explanations as to its meaning. In the underground/music/outlaw scenes its common usage means Fuck The World. Outside this tribal world it has other meanings, but for anyone to claim 100% ownership of the acronym as all the gamers under thirty have done just shows a degree of arrogance imo, although they probably think that imo means idiots mouthing obscenities.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said I'm happy to accept that it can mean for the win within the context of a comment, but I'll be damned if I'll accept that this trumps fuck the world.
Similarly R&B will allways mean one thing to me and others, while to younger people who willfully ignore the past it will only ever mean one stlye of music.
I still use FTW as "Fuck The World".
ReplyDeleteAnd that R&B anecdote totally resonates with me.
FTW
I'm with you on the "Fuck The World" thing but I've got to say the word I hate is "diddle". I only knew one definition for this one (to cheat) until my mate told me she said it in conversation down south and it was one of these moments when the music almost stopped in the pub. She was talking about getting diddled...
ReplyDeleteplay him mad sins ftw , cant get any clearer than that :P
ReplyDeleteFuck The World, always will be to me.
ReplyDelete