Emoticon

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An emoticon, also called a smiley, is a sequence of ordinary printable ASCII characters, such as :-), ;o), ^_^ or :-(, or a small image, intended to represent a human facial expression and convey an emotion. Emoticons are a form of paralanguage commonly used in e-mail messages, in online bulletin boards, online forums, instant messengers, or in chat rooms, without them simple statements could be misinterpreted. Sometime during 1981, Scott Fahlman (now a Principle Research Scientist in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University), devised a scheme for encoding and conveying one's feelings in small text "glyphs" to overcome this frustration.

Look up emoticon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word emoticon is a portmanteau which popular etymology bases on emotion and icon. A similar portmanteau, verticon (based on vertical and (i?)con), is sometimes used when referring to the East Asian style of emoticon.

The smile is represented with a basic smiley :-). The colon represents the eyes, the hyphen is for the nose, and the parenthesis is for the mouth.

Many variants exist with different symbols substituted for the basic ones. The symbol for the nose is often omitted, for example :) or ;). When the colon is replaced with the equals sign, =), the nose is almost always omitted (so one would not see =-), for example).

Bold text

Headline text

SHMERF

Variants

There are endless possibilities, because people are very good at creating and interpreting pictures as faces. See ASCII art.

Some variants are also more common in certain countries because of reasons like keyboard layouts, for example the smiley =) is common in Scandinavia and Finland where the keys for = and ) are placed right beside each other and both need the use of the shift key.

A few people turn the smiley around, a "left handed" smiley (: This left-handed smiley can sometimes cause miscommunication though, since some hardcore net addicts tend to drop the  : representing the eyes [leaving ) instead of  :) ] so what was intended to be a smile could be interpreted as a frown.

There also exists the use of umlauts to achieve emoticons that aren't tilted to the side. For example, Ö is the upright version of :O (meaning that one is alarmed).

As more of a joke than anything – but also as a political statement – "frownies", the symbol  :-( , were trademarked by Despair, Inc. in U.S. Trademark Serial No. 75502288, Registration No. 2347676. The trademark applies only to "Printed matter namely, greeting cards, posters and art prints". In January 2001 Despair issued a satirical press release in which it was announced that the company would be suing "over 7 million internet users" who had infringed their trademark. They subsequently issued another press release a month later in response to the reaction their claim had generated.

XD (used to represent laughing) supposedly became popular on the internet shortly after it was used in the television show, South Park, usually explained to the unknowing as the emoticon being akin to the animation method used when a character was laughing so hard they had their eyes closed (a sideways X for their eyes).

Head and hands emoticons

Some of these emoticons aren't rotated, they include the letter "o" for a human head, and slashes and backslashes for the arms.

o/ _o/ .o/ waving with or raising the left hand (person facing you)
\o \o_ \o. waving with or raising the right hand (person facing you); this is sometimes used to mimic a Nazi salute
/o scratching one's head
/o\ despair, cowering
\o/ joy, note that \m/ and \,,/ is "METAL"
<o/ _o> <o> dancing
<o_/ \_o/ fencing
>-<o jumping, diving
o7 saluting
>.< frustrated
*\o/* cheerleader
<o o> honor
/=O=\ goatse
$_$ Feeling rich
¯\(º_o)/¯ shrugging, confusion, doubt
,,!,,( o.O ),,!,, Flipping off, angry
=|:-)= Uncle Sam

They're also usable for displaying "animations", e.g. a crowning process:

o/" _o
o_ "\o
o_ <ö
o/ \ö/

Or for displaying how to dance "YMCA":

\o/ ^o^ o< /o\


|}

Posture emoticons

orz (sometimes seen as OTL Or2, On_, OTZ, O7Z, Sto, Jto, _no, _|￣|○) spawned a subculture in late 2004.[1] It illustrates a person facing left and kneeling on the ground: the "o" symbolizes the head, the "r" represents the arms and the body while the "z" shows the legs. Though people use the pictograph to show that they have failed and/or they are in despair, some people, in Taiwan, use it to show that they laugh a lot so that they kneel down. It is not read phonetically, the letters are spelled out. Not to be confused with m(_ _)m, which means an apology.

Orz is associated sometimes with the phrase "nice guy" - that is, the concept of males being rejected for a date by girls they are pursuing with a phrase like "You're a nice guy," "I'd like to be your friend," etc., a la "nice guy syndrome".

On imageboards, it has been used not only for failure and despair, but also as a symbol for the kowtow, illustrating instead a person bowing down in worship of a certain picture that was posted.

Handicons

Recently developed are "handicons" to represent hand gestures. They can be seen either right or left-handed (the examples below are shown from the perspective of facing a right-handed gesture). Many variantions use "." as a knuckle instead of "n" or "m". For the other hand, one simply reverses the order of the line and switches the knuckle (< for left, > for right).

Left___Right__Txt
File:JackalLeft.gif File:JackalRight.gif <lml or \m/ Devil horns or rock jackal; commonly the hand gesture for "rock on" among rock fans (left)
File:LeftBird.gif File:RightBird.gifnlm> Flashing "the bird" (right)
File:LeftDrEvil.gif File:RightDrEvil.gif<mnl The Doctor Evil pinky as popularized by Austin Powers
File:RightDrEvil 2.gif File:LeftDrEvil 2.gif Version 2.0 dr.evil handicon
File:PropsLeft.gif File:PropsRight.gif<mm Props or the knuckle (often returned likewise as a greeting)
<Vm The Peace sign
<\V/ The Vulcan (Star Trek), Vulcan salute or "live long and prosper"

East Asian style

Users from East Asia (particularly Japanese language speakers those who visit 2channel) popularized a style of emoticons known as verticons (顔文字, kaomoji, literally "face characters"), which can be understood without turning one's head to the left. These styles of faces roughly resemble the style commonly found in Japanese anime and manga comic books.

The Japanese language is usually encoded using double-byte character codes. As a result there is a bigger variety of characters that can be used in emoticons, many of which cannot be reproduced in ASCII. Most kaomoji contain Cyrillic and other foreign letters to create even more complicated expressions analogous to ASCII art's level of complexity. To type such emoticons, the input editor that is used to type Japanese on a user's system is equipped with a dictionary of emoticons, after which the user simply types the Japanese word (or something close to it) that represents the desired emoticon to convert the input into such complicated emoticons. Such expressions are known as Shift JIS art.

Basic examples

m(_ _)m bowing
(`ヘ´) annoyed
（´・ω・｀） deflated
（ ´Д｀） yelling, or panting
（　ﾟДﾟ） surprised, or loudmouthed
┐('～`；)┌ don't know the answer
（´∀｀） carefree
（　´_ゝ`） indifferent
Σ(゜д゜;) shocked
(*´Д`) heavy breathing
＇へ＇凸　 flipping someone the bird
╮(─▽─)╭ "who cares?"
ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━!!!!! "It's here", a general expression of excitement that something has appeared or happened.

Anime style

English anime forums spawned a form of kaomoji adapted for single-byte encoding. They have since seen use in more mainstream venues, including online gaming, instant-messaging, and other non-anime related forums. These emoticons are usually found in a format similar to (*_*), where the asterisks indicate the eyes, the central character, usually an underscore, the mouth, and the parentheses, the outline of the face. A large number of different characters can be used to replace the eyes, which usually is where the emoticon derives its emotive aspect (contrasting the Western emoticons' emoting through the mouth). The emphasis on the eyes is reflected in the common usage of emoticons that use only the eyes, e.g. ^^. Either a hyphen or a period can replace the underscore; the period is often used for a smaller, "cuter" mouth or to represent a nose, e.g. (^.^). Alternatively, the mouth/nose can be left out entirely, e.g. (^^). The parentheses also can often be replaced with braces, e.g. {^_^}. Many times, the parentheses are left out completely, e.g. o.o . A quotation mark ", apostrophe ', or semicolon ; can be appended to the emoticon to imply apprehension or embarrassment, à la the anime sweat drop. Many other characters can be appended to also indicate arms or hands, e.g. <(^_^)>. Anime style emoticons which include the parentheses, mouth or nose, and arms (especially those represented by the inequality signs < or >) also are often referred to as "Kirbies" in reference to their likeness to Nintendo's video game character, Kirby.

Basic examples

(^_^) or (^-^) or (^ ^) smiley
(`_^) or (^_~) wink
(>_<) pretending to be cute, or pain, or frustration
(<_>) sad
(^o^) singing, or laughing maniacally
t(-_-t) flipping the bird
\(^o^)/ very excited (raising hands)
(-_-) or (~_~) or (=_=) annoyance, resignation, or sleeping (eyes shut), grumpy
(-_-;) or (^_^') or (^_^);; nervousness, or sweatdrop (embarrassed; semicolon can be repeated)
(-_-#) or (-_-¤) vein (used to show frustration)
(¬_¬) eyeing something or someone, sometimes used as an expression of rolling one's eyes
(<_<) or (>_>) or (c_c) skepticism, looking around suspiciously
(;_;) or (T_T) crying
(@_@) dazed
`(•.°)~ druggy, trippin'
(o_O) confused surprise, disturbed
(0_<) flinch, nervous wink
(O_O) shocked (also O.o - one eye smaller than the other)
(._.) intimidated, sad, ashamed
($_$) money eyes; thinking about money ( also somtimes changeable to other currency symbols such as (¥_¥) )
(x_x) or (+_+) dead or knocked out; giving up, lost, confused
(n_n) pleased
(u_u) annoyance, sarcasm, sometimes disappointment
(9_9) eye rolling
(e_e) mischief, distrust
(e_o) or (o_e) eye twitching
(*_*) star-struck
(",) smirk
("o) side shocked
(-.-)zzZ or -_-zzZ sleeping
(o)_(o) alternative for tired; sometimes used to illustrate crazed
;o; or ;O; crying loudly/shouting
T_T or TT_TT or Y_Y exaggerated crying, so that the eyes are closed and tears stream down the face
I_I "What?", mellow

new Faces include: (^v^) or use v in place of _.

Complex examples

Graphic emoticons

(ô ô) boy (sometimes also used to indicate surprise)
(ö ö) girl
(ó ò) surprised, scared
(ò ó) angry
(ó ô) quizzical or "Indeed" (designed to mimic Star Trek's Mr. Spock)
(╥_─) annoyed, hiding frustration, dread
=^_^= blushing, or a cat face (mischievous)
-^_^- blushing
^n_n^ catgirl or boy
d-_-b listening to music, labeling title afterwards
~~~~>_<~~~~ weeping horribly
<(^_^)>,(>^_^)>, etc. dancing, especially used to specifically show Kirby dancing
(>^_^)> <(^_^<) hugging
(>^(>O_o)> sexual intercourse, normally used to depict rape and/or anal sex (extensible)
( ~^_^)~ dancing
(9ò_ó)-o fighting, throwing a punch
/¯\_/°^_^°\_/¯\ Sailor Moon (extensible)
w-('u')-w Kilroy was here (extensible)
p(^o^)q good luck
(b~_^)b thumbs-up
p(-_-)p thumbs-down
t(-_-t) or ,,l,(>.<),l,, flipping off
(^^ .)\\// giving the V-sign
m <(~_~)> m kitten
~~(=_=)~~ breakdance
\m/>_<\m/ rockin' out
(¬_¬)/¯ "It's good... to go!"
\0-0/ wearing glasses (nerd)
Q_Q or QQ 2 eyes crying.
x_x whatever
¯\(o_º)/¯ a shrug, confused misunderstanding
(_8^(o) "D'oh!"
(ρ_-)o sleepy / rubbing eyes
ʄ σ,..,σ ʄ ghost
( ._.)ø writing
(._.) Sometimes used in place of (o.o); used as shock or confusion. [ (.-.) is just the upside down version of this emoticon]

Graphic emoticons (small images that often automatically replaced typed text) are commonly used instead of the older text variants, especially on Internet forums and instant messenger programs.

Examples

File:Cry-tpvgames.gif crying
confused
sad
shocked
smile
odd, crazy, etc.




History

Examples

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Smilies.

Japanese emoticons

See also

Notes

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