FTW is anagrammically attached to WTF

WTF is an acronym referring to What the fuck, while FTW tends to stand for "Fuck the World"

Typically these are seen on young human knuckles, arms, and canvas school bags.
Often individuals cutting or inking these letters to their bodies have been in juvie (Juvenile Detention) and possibly may also slash.

There has also been a film released by the name FTW which features many independant alternative music bands.

As far as I know the acronym FTW, Fuck The World, was started by the LA based punk band, X, back in the late seventies. They would take razors and etch the letters into their body to signify their angst for society, and also for the fact that they couldn't afford to get real tattoos. Check out the documentary Decline of Western Civilization: the Punk Years for a gritty scene of this process.

These days those definitions have gone out of fashion. The internet has lead to a number of fads. One internet meme rises and another falls and it soon falls so that another can take its place. All your base fell to The Star Wars Kid to World of Warcraft to whatever might come next.

FTW these days stands, not for Fuck the World but for the phrase born out of the Engrish meme, IMspeak and drunken internet use. The phrase in question is "For teh win," which so far has gone nodeless. The phrase is used to show support for some idea generally or group. For example:

Anarcho-communism FOR TEH WIN!

Robot Overlords FTW!!

For the typo-savvy out the I am not misspelling 'the,' 'teh' is a common misspelling of 'the' which has come into common, intentional usage for a vague sense of irony on the part of the user. This specifically came out of the IMspeak meme, were people trying to be superior to IMspeakers began using the misspelling as a way of mocking them. Then those who thought themselves superior to those groups mocking the IMspeakers began mocking them with the word. Now 'teh' is simply a byword of meta-internet tongue-in-cheekiness.


According to RoguePoet: The original phrase 'for the win' is a reference to Hollywood Squares. Gary Colman, For TEH WIN!

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