emoticon

e·mo·ti·con

E0114250 (ĭ-mō′tĭ-kŏn′)n. A facial glyph, used especially in email, texts, and instant messages and sometimes typed sideways, that indicates an emotion or attitude, as [ :-) ] to indicate delight, humor, or irony or [ :'( ] to indicate sadness.

[emot(ion) + icon.]

emoticon

(ɪˈməʊtɪˌkɒn) n (Telecommunications) any of several combinations of symbols used in electronic mail and text messaging to indicate the state of mind of the writer, such as :-) to express happiness[C20: from emot(ion) + icon]

e•mo•ti•con

(ɪˈmoʊ tɪˌkɒn)
n. Computers. an abbreviation or icon used on a network, as IMHO for “in my humble opinion” or:-), a sideways representation of a smiling face, to indicate amusement. [1980–85; b. emotion and icon]

emoticon

1. An arrangement of typed characters used, when read sideways, to represent an emotion or state of mind, such as :-) symbolizing a smiling face.2. A group of typed characters that resemble a facial expression. The most common is “:-)” – which resembles a smiling face tipped on its side.

Thesaurus

Noun

emoticon - a representation of a facial expression (as a smile or frown) created by typing a sequence of characters in sending email; ":-( and :-) are emoticons"smiley - an emoticon of a smiling facefacial expression, facial gesture - a gesture executed with the facial muscles

Translations

émoticônefrimousse

emoticon

[i′mōd·ə‚kän] (computer science) A combination of keyboard characters that depicts a sideways face whose expression conveys an emotional response. Also known as smiley.

emoticon

(chat)/ee-moh'ti-kon/ An ASCII glyph used to indicate anemotional state in electronic mail or news. Althoughoriginally intended mostly as jokes, emoticons (or some otherexplicit humour indication) are virtually required undercertain circumstances in high-volume text-only communicationforums such as Usenet; the lack of verbal and visual cuescan otherwise cause what were intended to be humorous,sarcastic, ironic, or otherwise non-100%-serious comments tobe badly misinterpreted (not always even by newbies),resulting in arguments and flame wars.

Hundreds of emoticons have been proposed, but only a few arein common use. These include:

:-) "smiley face" (for humour, laughter,friendliness, occasionally sarcasm)

:-( "frowney face" (for sadness, anger, or upset)

;-) "half-smiley" (ha ha only serious); alsoknown as "semi-smiley" or "winkey face".

:-/ "wry face"

These may become more comprehensible if you tilt your headsideways, to the left. The first two are by far the mostfrequently encountered. Hyphenless forms of them are commonon CompuServe, GEnie, and BIX; see also bixie. OnUsenet, "smiley" is often used as a generic term synonymouswith emoticon, as well as specifically for the happy-faceemoticon.

The emoticon was invented by one Scott Fahlman on the CMUbboard systems on 1982-09-19. He later wrote: "I wish I hadsaved the original post, or at least recorded the date forposterity, but I had no idea that I was starting somethingthat would soon pollute all the world's communicationchannels." GLS confirms that he remembers this originalposting, which has subsequently been retrieved from a backup.

As with exclamation marks, overuse of the smiley is a mark ofloserhood! More than one per paragraph is a fairly sure signthat you've gone over the line.

emoticon

(EMOTional ICON) A pictorial expression of feeling in a message rendered as text. Carnegie Mellon professor Scott Fahlman is credited with creating the first emoticon (the "smiley") using the text characters :-) in an online message in 1982.

Pronounced "e-mo-tih-con," the symbols are stored in the Unicode character set. Word processing, email and other character-based programs may automatically convert emoticon text into an icon. See emoji, emotag, Unicode and alphanumerish.

Emoticon Meaning :-) smiley, happy face :-( frown ;-) wink :-D big smile :-O mouth open in amazement :-Q tongue hanging out in nausea :-{) moustache :-{)} moustache and beard 8-) wears glasses (-: left handed or Australian :*) red nosed, suggesting inebriation

See emoticon

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Words related to emoticon

noun a representation of a facial expression (as a smile or frown) created by typing a sequence of characters in sending email

Related Words