Let's take a look at Emoticons, Smilies, and acronyms common in chats but occasionally used in email and other mediums. What are they? Why are they here?
Back in the mid-70s computer systems were all text based. Users were looking for a way to add emotion to their otherwise boring communications and came up with "Emoticons" also called "Smilies". The basic smiley looks like this :-)
Tip your head to the right and imagine the colon as two eyes, the dash as a nose and the close parenth as a mouth. From the basic smilie you can find all sorts of variations. Here's a list to get you thinking. Try creating your own. The smilie lists are always changing and growing.
Smilies
:-) smile
:-> sarcastic
;-) wink
:-))) laughing or double chin
:.-) laughing tears
;-)=) grin
:-D laughing
:-} wry smile
:^( Uhnappy, looking away
:-P tongue (?)
:-( sad, angry
:-< sad
:-I indifferent/sad
:.-( weeping
:-II angry
:-@ angry
}-) evil
:-X mute
:-() talking
:-O surprised/shocked
=:-) shocked
O:-) halo
:-3 has eaten a lemon
:-/ skeptical
:-Z sleeping
:-x kissing
:-* sorry, I didn't want to say that
?-( sorry, I don't know what went wrong
:*) drunk (red nose)
%-) stared too long at monitor
#-) dead
X-) inconscious
:-Q smoking
(:-) bald
.-) one-eyed
-:-) punk
<:-) stupid question (donkey's hat)
<|-) chinese
@:-) arab
8:-) little girl
:-)-8 big girl
[:-] robot
::-) wearing glasses
8-) wearing (sun)glasses / wide-eyed grin
B-) horn-rimmed glasses
B:-) sunglasses on head
.^) side view
:<) moustache
_O-) aquanaut
{:-) wig
:-E vampire
:-[ vampire
(-: left-handed
:o) boxer's nose
Smilies without noses
:) happy
[:] robot
:] gleep, friendly
=) bad hair day
:/ Pensive, thinking, undecided
:> Mischievous
:D Big smile
:I hmmm...
;) Winking
:I hmmm...
:( sad
Acronyms
An acronym is an abbreviation that provides a short way of expressing a word or phrase. They're popular in Internet Relay chat, web based chatrooms, and are often used in chatrooms on America Online. For your convenience, we've marked the acronyms most often used in our chats in bold type.
2U2 to you, too
AAMOF as a matter of fact
AFAIK as far as I know
AFAIC As far as I'm concerned
AFAICT As far as I can tell
AFK away from keyboard
AFU all umm.. mucked up
ASAP as soon as possible
BBL be back later
BITMT but in the meantime
BOT back on topic
BRB be right back
BTW by the way
C4N ciao for now
CRS can't remember "stuff"
CU see you
CUL(8R) see you later
CWOT complete waste of time
CYA see ya (also: Cover Your Ass)
DAMIFINO damn if I know
DIY do it yourself
EOD end of discussion
EZ Easy
F2F face to face
FAQ frequently asked questions
FBOW for better or worse
FOAF friend of a friend
FOCL falling off chair laughing
FWIW for what it's worth
FYA for your usement
FYI for your information
/ga go ahead
GAL get a life
GBTW get back to work
GFC going for coffee
GFETE grinning from ear to ear
GMTA great minds think alike
GR&D grinning, running & ducking
GTG got to go
GTGTTBR got to go to the bathroom
HAND have a nice day
HHOK ha ha only kidding
HTH hope this helps
IAC in any case
IAE in any event
IC I see
IDGI I don't get it
IMCO in my considered opinion
IMHO in my humble opinion
IMNSHO in my not so humble opinion
IMO in my opinion
IMPE in my previous/personal experience
IMVHO in my very humble opinion
IOTTMCO intuitively obvious to the most casual observer
IOW in other words
IRL in real life
ISP internet service provider
IYKWIM if you know what I mean
JIC just in case
J/K just kidding
Kewl Cool
KISS keep it simple stupid
L8TR Later
LOL laughing out loud
LTNS long time no see
MTCW my two cents worth
NRN no reply necessary
ONNA oh no, not again!
OTOH on the other hand
PCMCIA people can't memorize computer industry acronyms
PITA pain in the ass
PLS please
PMP peeing my pants (laughing)
REHI hello again (re-Hi!)
ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing
ROFLMAO rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
ROFLMAOASTC rolling on the floor laughing my ass off and scaring the cat
RSN real soon now
RTDox read the documentation/directiosns
RTFM read the freaking manual
RUOK are you OK?
SNAFU situation normal; all fouled up
SO significant other
TANSTAAFL there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
TAFN that's all for now
THX thanks
TIA thanks in advance
TMK to my knowledge
TOS terms of service
TPTB the powers that be
TSWC tell someone who cares
TTBOMK to the best of my knowledge
TTFN ta-ta for now
TTYL(8R) talk to you later
TWIMC to whom it may concern
URL Address of your web page
w/b Welcome Back
WRT with regard to
w/o without to
WTG way to go
Wuz was
WWW World Wide Web
WYSIWYG what you see is what you get
YGIAGAM your guess is as good as mine
YGWYPF you get what you pay for
YMMV your mileage may vary ("I do not expect you to agree with
You'll notice that different chat communities can develop different 'dialects' or accents. If you see an acronym or smilie used, you can figure it's pretty save to use it yourself. If you use acronyms and the majority of people in the room don't seem to understand, it's probably not something commonly used in that community.
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