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Internet slang is slang that has been developed and used by users of the Internet. Many of these terms originated for saving keystrokes and are often written in lower case. Internet slang is, by its nature, difficult to interpret, especially in chatrooms or on instant messaging, because much of it is quickly input, and many forget their audience doesn't see their body language. For instance; an "LOL" may be taken as genuine laughter or sarcasm, or as "whatever, stay away from me." So, for the sake of accurate and easily understandable communication, Internet users should be as explicit as possible and make an effort to get their point across. The Internet environment can also utilise emoticons such as :) to clarify emotional intent in Internet messages. Conversely, they can add to the confusion, for example the :-P emoticon which can indicate both (positive) joking and (negative) sarcasm. Some users overuse emoticons.
Chat acronyms or chaq (pronounced "chalk") originally developed on pre-Internet bulletin board systems, and have since come into use with users of text-messaging wireless telephones. A handful (e.g. ASAP, PO'ed) far pre-date computers. The three-letter acronym (TLA) remains one of the most popular types of abbreviation in computing and telecom terminology and slang.
These lists could usefully expand to include citations of the earliest usage, where references exist.
1 Abbreviations and acronyms
1.1 Characters
Internet abbreviations evolve and change continually. Online games provide a good place to observe language like this in use. Often, people uninterested in computer programming do not understand the more classically "nerdy" phrases like "2B||!2B", thus they become useless or appear only in minority forums.
- ^ ^ or ^__^ or ^^ an emoticon signifying happiness, especially used by anime fans. "Chuckle marks"
- >^.^< cat face or a face that has crinkled up with laughter.
- _|_ an offensive emoticon signifying the middle finger
- <^> another form of the middle finger
- <3 "love"; ASCII art for a heart, the less-than symbol and the three resemble a heart tilted on its side.
- 3 "hate"; ASCII art for a broken heart, similar to <3.
- == agreement; from the C equality operator; means "me too" or "what he said"
- @ "at"
- * (asterisk) applied around a word or phrase to indicate emphasis or italics. Singly, in chat, in front of a word or phrase at the beginning of a line means a correction to one's own previous typo.
1.2 Numbers
- 10-4 "Ok, Acknowledgement", as in the US Police radio codes.
- 224 "today, tomorrow, forever"
- 2B "to be"
- 2B||!2B "to be or not to be"; from the C programming language logic operation 'OR'("||") and 'NOT'("!").
- 2TM "to the max"
- 3Q or 3U "thank you" ( Chinese pronunciation)
- 4 "for"
- 4ever, 4eva "forever"
- 69 Usually found in AIM screen names, means mutual oral sex.
- 807 "BOT"; a person who demonstrates an extreme lack of knowledge or common sense. Plural: 8075
- 88, 881 or 886 "bye bye" ( Chinese pronunciation)
- 9494 "that's it", "that's right", "you see?" ( Chinese pronunciation)
1.3 A
- ACK "acknowledged"; used frequently in discussion boards, tech-speak
- AFAIC "as far as I'm concerned", or "as far as I care", or "as far as I can..."
- AFAICS "as far as I can see"
- AFAICT "as far as I can tell"
- AFAIK "as far as I know"
- AFAIR "as far as I recall", or "as far as I remember"
- AFC "away from computertower of a personal computer. A computer is a device for making calculations or controlling operations that are expressible in numerical or logical terms. While factually accurate, this definition and those found in other dictionaries are so broad that th"
- AFK "away from keyboardA computer keyboard is a peripheral modelled after the typewriter keyboard. Keyboards are designed for the input of written text, and also to control the operation of the computer. Physically, computer keyboards are an arrangement of rectangular or near-r"
- AICMFP " and I claim my five pounds"
- AIUI "as I understand it"
- AKAAka can refer to the following meanings: Aka is an initialism for A lso K nown A s. Aka refers to the name an African Pygmy tribe. Aka refers to the name of a tribal group in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. AKA refers to a British movie made in 2 "also known as", predates the internet.
- AOHell "AOL", " America OnlineAmerica Online or AOL for short, is a corporate online service provider and internet service provider ( ISP). AOL is owned by Time Warner, which uses the NYSE stock symbol "TWX". Today, America Online is perhaps best known for being an ISP. AOL's main com".
- ASAP "as soon as possible"
- ASL "age, sex, location"; used to request general info about a fellow user. Also used as an introductory phrase, usually when that info is expected up-front.
- ATM "at the moment"
- ATOP "at time of posting..."
- AUP "Acceptable Use Policy"
- AYBABTU " All your base are belong to us" It comes from an ancient internet joke related to the intro of an old console game.
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