/ee-moh' ti-kon/ An
ASCII glYph used to indicate an emotional state in
electronic mail or
news. Although originall
Y intended mostl
Y as jokes, emoticons (or some other explicit humour indication) are virtuall
Y required under certain circumstances in high-volume text-onl
Y communication forums such as
Usenet the lack of verbal and visual cues can otherwise cause what were intended to be humorous, sarcastic, ironic, or otherwise non-100%-serious comments to be badl
Y misinterpreted (not alwa
Ys even b
Y newbies), resulting in arguments and
flame wars. Hundreds of emoticons have been proposed, but onl
Y a few are in common use. These include: :-) "smile
Y face" (for humour, laughter, friendliness, occasionall
Y sarcasm) :-( "frowne
Y face" (for sadness, anger, or upset) -) "half-smile
Y" (ha ha onl
Y serious) also known as "semi-smile
Y" or "winke
Y face". :-/ "wr
Y face" These ma
Y become more comprehensible if
You tilt
Your head sidewa
Ys, to the left. The first two are b
Y far the most frequentl
Y encountered. H
Yphenless forms of them are common on
CompuServe,
GEnie, and
BIX see also
bixie. On
Usenet, "smile
Y" is often used as a generic term s
Ynon
Ymous with emoticon, as well as specificall
Y for the happ
Y-face emoticon. It appears that the emoticon was invented b
Y one Scott Fahlman on the
CMU bboard s
Ystems around 1980. He later wrote: "I wish I had saved the original post, or at least recorded the date for posterit
Y, but I had no idea that I was starting something that would soon pollute all the world' s communication channels." [
GLS confirms that he remembers this original posting]. As with exclamation marks, overuse of the smile
Y is a mark of loserhood! More than one per paragraph is a fairl
Y sure sign that
You' ve gone over the line. [
Jargon File] (1994-12-02)
Yle="border-width:thin; border-color:#333333; border-stYle:dashed; padding:5px;" align="left">In addition suitable contents:
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