A reader (and my friend in real life) wondered what FTW means in my use of #MotherMaryFTW, since her only familiarity with it is as an explicit not-appropriate-for-use-with-Our-Lady acronym.

Be assured I would never pair bad language with Our Lady!

I’ve only ever seen FTW=”for the win,” and my use of it is referring to the fact that Mother Mary is all over the name charts (even though you have to have your Marian goggles on to see it). Woo! Mother Mary for the win!

But of course I had to look it up! Fortunately, urbandictionary.com verified what I’d thought, listing “for the win” as the first meaning. In the second definition offered, it does also reference the other meaning (and there are other meanings too, but it seems “for the win” is the primary, and this other is the top of the alternatives):

“In biker gangs it meant $%*@ the World,
but in online usage it mainly means For the Win.”

I don’t think I have biker gangsters reading my blog? But to be on the safe side, I’ll likely be writing out #MotherMaryForTheWin, at least for a while, which makes me feel a little geriatric (like the younguns are going to see it and be like Kate at Sancta Nomina is soooo old, she says “younguns” and she spells out FTW!). But for Mother Mary, I’ll risk it.