ZOMG predates 4chan, which launched in October 2003 and seems to have been used as a sarcastic way to say "Oh my God!" .
From a since deleted Wikipedia article:
ZOMG is a Derivative of the Internet shorthand term for "Oh My God",
OMG. The term is commonly used to express humorously overwrought
excitement and as a way of mocking internet slang as a whole, and is
most likely representative of pushing the Shift key over-zealously and
sloppily, thus pushing the "Z" key in the process, on a QWERTY
keyboard. It has appeared on various websites and message boards,
often associated with a "witty" remark or trolling, and was spotted in
use as early as 1996. It is reasonably widespread today in the online
Anime and gaming communities, and is often used in its more ironic
sense on internet pop-culture forums such as Fark.
...
Usage
ZOMG is often followed by a variation of LOL or by an excessive
series of exclamation points trailing into a numerical "1". This last
convention implies the typist's ineptitude in creating a simple
Exclamation mark on a QWERTY keyboard. A common addition to the
previous scenario is to append the word "one" after the numerical "1",
e.g., "ZOMG!!!!!!1111one". On some message boards, this is
sarcastically extended to phrases such as
"ZOMG!!!!1111onetwoeleventy111". In some cases typists will go to
extreme lengths such as typing "ZOMG!!!11!1one!1cos(0)". In each case,
the (self-depreciating) implication is that the typist lacks the
wherewithal to type correctly.
In gaming communities, ZOMG is often
followed by "hax", and cries of "ZOMG hax!" and the like may be heard
when a player does anything especially impressive, implying
(ironically or otherwise) that the player must be hacking the game to
do so well.
Another meaning of the word suggests a usage as an odd child of the
two words "Zing" and "OMG". This implies a more humorous nature to the
word itself without the necessary implications of surprise that come
with the acronym "OMG". Others suggest that "ZOMG hax" originally
spawned in StarCraft, if a player lost quickly to a Zerg player,
causing the losing player to think his opponent hacked because he won
so quickly. Thus, "Zerg, OMG, hax" quickly because "ZOMG, hax."
Popularity
This slang word was not made popular on the Internet at large until
its "reinvention" in 2003. ZOMG spread from a personal joke between
James Curbo and friend Matthew Milan to the Raspberry Heaven Internet
community, from there to the Something Awful Forums, LUElinks Forums,
and popular image board 4chan upon its opening in October 2003, and
from these places spread to the Internet community at large.
From a 2005 revision:
Origin
Although often cited as an invention of USAF officer James Curbo in
2003, ZOMG appears in a USENET post from 1999 and its use in some
online MUD communities has been cited as far back as 1996. Some have
suggested that its inventor in 2003 had seen ZOMG somewhere before
without realizing it, while others consider it a case of parallel
invention, as with Richard Jordan Gatling's invention of the screw
propellor for steam boats only to discover that another man had had
the same idea and beaten him to it.
In any case, the word was not
popular on the internet at large until its reinvention in 2003. "ZOMG"
spread from a personal joke between James Curbo and friend Matthew
Milan to the Raspberry Heaven internet community, from there to the
Something Awful Forums, LUElinks Forums, and popular image board 4chan
upon its opening in October 2004, and from there to the internet
community at large, particularly among anime and gaming fans.
ZOMG's
popularity can be attributed partially to the difficulty in expressing
emotion via the internet. Since the phrase OMG ("Oh My God") is often
taken seriously when the speaker means it as a joke, the addition of a
Z to the acronym gives it a certain ridiculousness, since few words
begin with the letter Z would fit the acronym.
It makes sense to
assume that ZOMG came from a typo of "OMGz," -z being a common
intensifying suffix used in leetspeak.
And from another 2005 revision:
ZOMG also possibly originated from BBS chatroom emote commands such as
zlaugh, zcry, etc.
I also found another copy of the ZOMG FAQ, the contents are the same but this one has a copyright notice:
Copyright (c) 2003 Matthew Milan and James Curbo
So it was written by both of them. I also found this from 2005:
zomg
- A social experiment started by Matthew Milan (Rick_Feynman) and
James Curbo (hannibal)in January 2003 to explore methods of speading
and popularizing internet memes. It was also a mocking jab at people
who practiced "leet-speak".
Originally meant to be a more intense version of 'OMG' - who knows
what it means now.
Originally 'launched' in two places, the Toronto Raptors Usenet Group
and the Raspberry Heaven Direct Connect hub. From there it spread into
the anime fan-subbing community, the Something Awful forums and the
4-chan Image Boards.
The oldest reference I can find is by Jonathan Seda on the alt.fan.nb Usenet group for Nintendo gamers, 24th April 1999. Here's a snippit of a presumably fictitious chatlog:
KREMIS: oh no!!!
KREMIS: BASTAR!D!!! fag!!
KREMIS: Go away!!!!! NOW PLEAEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!EEEEE!!!
KREMIS: ZOMG!!!!!
KREMIS: FFF
I also found ZOMG in signatures of forum posts dating back to 2001. Here's syntrix's signature, 28th September 2001, interesting for the zombie mention and ASCII art:
MOEW: ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ Zomg Zombies ٩(-̮̮̃-̃)۶ ٩(-̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(×̯×)۶ ¯(°_o)/¯
Jorji-'s signature, 24th January 2002:
zomg she finally got myspace lawls
spin's signature, 16th July 2002:
zomg, no more sites!
stu's signature, 26th December 2002:
ZOMG
Finally, as of last month, ZOMG has been added to Oxford Dictionaries Online, but doesn't help us much:
Origin:
early 21st century: perhaps in reference to fast or careless
typing of OMG, during the course of which the shift key is missed and
the 'z' key pressed instead.
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