About

L and W are slang terms standing for "Loss" and "Win." Online, they're used by commenters to point out whether they think something is bad or good for the subject of their comment. "L" in particular has been used to gloat over others; commonly, when someone is owned online, commenters will say they should "Take the L," meaning accept their defeat and move on.

Origin

"W" and "L" are terms used in sports to describe a team's wins and losses. It is unclear when they began seeing use as slang terms. The Ringer^[1] linked to the 1998 song "Twinz" by Big Pun and Fat Joe as an example of early usage of "L" as a slang term (shown below). Big Pun says in the song, "It'll be a cold day in hell the day I take an L."

On August 25th, 2003, Urban Dictionary user Cazort uploaded a definition for the phrase "Take the L," defining it as "Stands for "Take the loss". Frequently used to describe flunking a test, being dumped, being stood up, being beaten up or robbed, or losing one's money in the stock market, gambling, or through exploitative business schemes."^[2]

Spread

The phrase began seeing more use in the mid-2010s, particularly in sports and rap communities. On December 20th, 2015, Twitter user @J_no24 posted a photoshop of Odell Beckham Jr. catching an "L," gaining over 58,000 retweets (shown below, left). On February 21st, 2016, a Redditor asked the question "Who is Meek Mills, what are ''L's'', and why is he taking so many of them?"^[3] In February of 2018, Fortnite introduced an emote of a dance called "Take That L" (shown below, right).

After "L" became a popular way to denote a negative situation, others began using "W" to comment on positive situations, or a Win. For example, on May 22nd, 2019, a Redditor pointed out that Tyler the Creator's Mugshot ended up in their yearbook, to which much of the thread replied "W" (shown below, left). On September 7th, 2019, Urban Dictionary user Kadukununu posted a definition for "W," writing "W can be used for anything positive."^[4]

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References