Internet slang

: This article discusses general features of Internet slang. For detailed usages, see List of Internet slang.

Internet slang consists of , with capitals often reserved for emphasis — the pronoun I , for example, often appears simply as i .

The untrained eye often finds Internet slang difficult to interpret. This occurs largely because written text lacks the physical context and aural variety which speakers of spoken language convey with intonation and tone (linguistics) of the voice - such as sarcasm. s may use emoticons both genuinely and sarcastically; for example the :P emoticon, which can express either genuine amusement and a sense of fun, or express a negative sarcastic comment on something another user might have said.

=Origins=

The vocabulary of Internet slang draws from many different sources — typically environments that placed value on brevity of communication. Some terms, such as .

Chat acronyms originally developed on pre-Internet bulletin board systems. A handful (for example, ASAP, PO ed) far pre-date computers. The TLA (TLA) remains one of the most popular types of abbreviation in computing and telecommunications terminology and slang. Similar systems have since come into use with users of text-messaging wireless telephones.

With the rise of Instant messenger services (ICQ, America Online, and MSN, among others) the vocabulary has expanded dramatically.

Aside from instant messaging programs another realm full of online languages exists: the Internet gaming world. One of the most popular forms of video game slang has become known as H4X0R or as 13375P34K (in leetspeak). For parents today, learning the online language can play an important role in maintaining the online safety of children. An [http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx article] produced by Microsoft may help parents begin to understand some of the things their kids say in-game. (Many of the more knowledgeable geeks consider this article a joke, especially for Microsoft s attempts to interpret 1337 speak.)

Note that the many true computer gurus, hackers and coders regard leetspeak as a pathetic trademark of a newbie or of a show-off. Gurus, hackers and coders almost always use leetspeak sarcastically. They label the use of leetspeak, excessive use of abbreviations, and incorrect spelling and grammar as rude, and they usually regard it as indicative of a script kiddie or of a computer newbie.

Users sometimes make up Internet abbreviations on the spot, therefore many of them can seem confusing, obscure, whimsical, or even nonsensical. This type of on-the-spot abbreviating leads to such things as: OTP (on the phone) or the less common, OPTD (outside petting the dog). Another feature common to Internet communication involves the truncation and morphing of words to forms that users can type more readily. Examples of this include:

*addy — Address (plural: addys ) *convo — Conversation *pic — Picture ( pics , pix or piccies for plural) *proggy — Computer program *prolly — Probably (The Oxford English Dictionary traces this usage back as far as 1962) *sig — Signature (also siggy ) The form popularized this sarcastic usage.

Similarly, netizens may use the word liek or leik as sarcastic mis-spellings of the word like , as in I LIEK PIE . It often implies an insult to one s intelligence and/or typing ability.

Internet abbreviations evolve and change continually. Online games provide a good place to observe language variation in use. Often, people uninterested in computer programming do not understand the more classically nerdy phrases like 2B||!2B (which means to be, or not to be ), thus such usages become useless or appear only in minority Internet forums. From the days of FidoNet when many computers ran DOS we find meaning Grin , Big Grin , Very Big Grin , and of course Very Big Shit-Eating Grin . Lower-case variants ( and so on) are also used.

=Usage notes=

*Common disclaimer phrases (sometimes called parenthesis (rhetoric)) also often contract into acronyms — they tend to occur at certain points in a sentence, which can facilitate decoding. Some of these include:

IMHO: in my humble/honest opinion

AFAIK: as far as I know

IIRC: if I recall correctly

OTOH: on the other hand

IANAL: I am not a lawyer

*The word Newbie occurs almost exclusively to refer to all sorts of new users of an Internet forum or starters in a particular field of activity. It does not function as a pejorative term per se , but can do so when combined with RTFM, etc. : n00b has much more derogatory implications than newbie . *Certain online personalities, among them Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade (comic) , have begun to decry the usage of Internet slang, going so far as to refer to it as the crude truncations of the lower classes . [http://penny-arcade.com/news.phpdate=2005-07-06] *Although Internet slang has a close relationship with leetspeak, only online gamers traditionally use leet, while much larger groups of Internet users commonly use Internet slang. *The symbols < and > or * * often enclose a user s facial expression, action, or other feeling that is difficult to express via other online methods. For instance: , *smile*, , *jumping up and down*, or *very very sad right now* are all acceptable usages. Double colons are occasionally seen on each side of such expressions (::excited::); this usage may originate from an action syntax common to Simming.

=Common examples=

Some of the most commonly occurring elements of this slang include:

LOL (Internet slang) laughing out loud

bbl be back later

brb be right back

lmao laughing my ass off

rofl rolling on the floor laughing

ttyl talk to you later

gg good game, good going

roflmao rolling on the floor laughing my ass off

wtf what the fuck

omg oh my god!

btw by the way

afk away from keyboard

STFU shut the fuck up

kthx ok thanks

atm- at the moment

However, this list is a small fraction of the total List of Internet slang.

=See also=

*Abbreviation *Acronym *African American Vernacular English *Avatar (virtual reality) *Emoticon *Jargon File *Leet *List of computing and IT abbreviations *List of Internet slang *Slang *Txt

=External links=

*[http://www.noslang.com Internet Slang Translator & Dictionary] *[http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/ Jargon File webpage] *[http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html FOLDOC — Free On-line Dictionary of Computing] *[http://www.acronymfinder.com/ Acronym Finder]—searchable acronyms and abbreviations site (over 400,000 entries with over 25,000 slang/chat/Internet entries) *[http://www.geocities.com/ben-fuzzybear/acronyms.html BIBLIA — Ben s Incredible Big List of Initialisms and Acronyms] *[http://www.urbandictionary.com/ UrbanDictionary.com] (Warning: Possibly offensive and sexual words on this site.) *[http://www.netlingo.com NetLingo.com The Internet Dictionary] *[http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx Parents primer to computer slang] from Microsoft (Warning: Incomplete at best; flatly wrong at worst)