The things you learn: ZOMG

[pne]

I've occasionally wondered where "ZOMG" came from.

Russian Wikipedia claims that it's because "Z" is next to the shift key, so trying to press shift to capitalise the letters and slipping would result in "ZOMG" instead of merely "OMG".

Comments

[kait-the-great.livejournal.com]

That sounds plausible.

I never even wondered where DO NOT WANT came from, but it was sure funny when I learned.

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Image:DONOTWANT_Vader.jpg

It comes from Star Wars Ep. 3's NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO scene... a bootleg chinese dialogue version with english subtitles translated it as DO NOT WANT.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Huh! I don't think I knew that.

Thanks!

[leighbug]

Oh, thanks for sharing! That's cool.

[connie]

Haha, now I am going to feel like I am netspeak-failing every time I say "zomg" without capitalization! ;-)

[pne.livejournal.com]

Welll... just because that's its origin doesn't mean that lower-case "zomg" has to be bad; it's taken on a life of its own.

Just like nobody ever typed "YA RLY!!!!11Eleven" by mistake (exclamation marks turning into ones through shift key failure, sure, but "eleven"?).

[psitticism.livejournal.com]

I always liked to imagine it as "Zikes! Oh my God!" I knew that wasn't the origin, but I really enjoy the word "zikes" and would be very happy to see more people using it. That would be more fun than a typo.