Smileys! Get your smileys and smilies here. Get your Emoticons and MSN emoticons too! All from smiley central
 Smileys and emoticons are available to download now |
Smileys! Get your smileys and smilies here. Get your Emoticons and MSN emoticons too! All from smiley central
Smileys and emoticons are available to download now |
An emoticon, also called a smiley, is a sequence of ordinary printable
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 -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.
The word emoticon is a portmanteau which popular etymology bases on emotion and
icon. A similar portmanteau, verticon (based on vertical and (?)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 =-)
In 1963, the smiley face, a yellow button with two black dots representing eyes
and an upturned thick curve representing mouth, was created by freelance artist
Harvey Ball. It was realized on order of a large insurance company as part of a
campaign to bolster the morale of its employees and soon became a big hit.
This smiley presumably inspired later emoticons; the most basic graphic emoticon
depicts in fact a small, yellow, smiley face.
The earliest known non-ASCII emoticons were used in the PLATO IV program as
early as 1972, which allowed users to type multiple text characters "on top" of
each other. Many combinations of ordinary text characters were known to produce
face-like patterns, which were used as emoticons.
In April 16, 1969 New York Times interview taken by Alden Whitman, he asked
writer Vladimir Nabokov "How do you rank yourself among writers (living) and of
the immediate past?" Nabokov answered, " often think there should exist a
special typographical sign for a smile — some sort of concave mark, a supine
round bracket, which would now like to trace in reply to your question".
That interview has been reprinted in the collection of interviews and editorials
by Nabokov, "Strong Opinions" (ISBN: 0679726098)
Several Internet websites —such as Connected Earth— assert that Kevin Mackenzie
proposed -) as a joke-marker in April 1979, on a message board called MsgGroup.
The idea was to indicate tongue-in-cheek — the hyphen represented a tongue, not
a nose. Although it has two out of the three characters of ":-)", its intended
interpretation was different and it doesn't appear to have inspired the later
smileys.
Every issue of the British fashion magazine -, founded in 1980, has featured a
cover model with a winking right eye (or sometimes obscured in a different way).
Creation of :-) and :-(
The creator of the original ASCII emoticons :-) and :-(, with a specific
suggestion that they be used to express emotion, was Scott Fahlman; the text of
his original proposal, posted to the Carnegie Mellon University computer science
general board on September 19, 1982 (11:44), was considered lost for a long
time. It was however recovered twenty years later (September 10, 2002) by Jeff
Baird, from old backup tapes.
propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use
:-(
Internet usage
In Internet forums and instant messengers, text emoticons are often
automatically replaced with small corresponding images, which came to be called
emoticons as well. Similarly, in some versions of Microsoft Word, the Auto
Correct feature replaces basic smileys such as :) and :( with a single
smiley-like character. Originally, these image emoticons were fairly simple and
replaced only the most straightforward and common character sequences, but over
time they became so complex that the more specialized emoticons are often input
using a menu or popup windows, sometimes listing hundreds of items. Some of
these graphical emoticons do not actually represent faces or emotions; for
example, an "emoticon" showing a guitar might be used to represent music.
Further, some instant messaging software is designed to play a sound upon
receiving certain emoticons.
An August 2004 issue of the Risks Digest (comp.risks on USENET) pointed out a
problem with such features which are not under the sender's control:
It's hard to know in advance what character-strings will be parsed into what
kind of unintended image. A colleague was discussing his 401(k) plan with his
boss, who happens to be female, via instant messaging. He discovered, to his
horror, that the boss's instant-messaging client was rendering the "(k)" as a
big pair of red smoochy lips. [1]
Emoticons are also commonly used in online computer games.
Purposes
Emoticons have developed over the years as a replacement for facial expressions
and other emotional cues lacking in text-only communication; the goal is to
avoid misunderstandings due to the lack of contextual information. Many books
have been written on this subject, with voluminous listings of emoticons.
Western style
Traditionally, the emoticon in Western style is written from left to right, the
way one reads and writes in most Western cultures. Thus, most commonly, you'll
see the eyes on the left, followed by the nose and mouth. To more easily
recognise them, tilt your head towards your left shoulder (or occasionally
towards your right shoulder if the "top" of the emoticon is towards the right).
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).
Basic examples
The following examples all use a consistent form, but each of them can also be
transformed by being rotated, having the hyphen omitted, and/or by replacing the
eyes symbol. An equal sign is often used for the eyes in place of the colon,
without changing the meaning of the emoticon. In these instances, the hyphen is
almost always either omitted or, occasionally, replaced with an 'o' as in =o).
Lately it has become common to omit the hyphen, whether a colon or an equal sign
is used for the eyes [2]. Please note that the definitions for the following
examples are not absolute definitions rather a general idea of their meaning. :)
or :-) smile
:-)) Really happy
:( or :-( or :< frown
X-P or X-p knocked out or dead, or strangely joking
:-] polite smile, or sometimes a complimented blush
@=) falling university tomorrow initiation
:-[ another frown, or sometimes an embarrassed blush
:-# Braces
:-/ or :-\ skepticism, annoyance, uneasiness, or a slight frown;
dissatisfaction, lack of favourable opinion on the subject, undecided
:-| indecision, deadpan, a lack of response, or indifference; also often used
with a contrasting statement to convey biting sarcasm (.g. "That was hilarious.
:-|")
;-) or ;) or !-) or ;-p wink
:* kiss
:- or : wide grin, happy smile
:-P or :-p or :P or :-r or :-þ tongue sticking out; used to convey a joke,
light-hearted sarcasm, inappropriateness, or a light hearted groan, as in "Ugh".
Many users still interpret this as a raspberry-sound, especially long-time users
of emoticons.
B-) or 8-) wearing glasses (usually interpreted as sunglasses)
:-o or :-O or :-0 or :O surprise, shock
:S or :-s or :-S confusion, incoherent
c-oo or c-ol cool sunglasses
:-8 or :-B or :-F buck teeth
:-x sealed lips; used to convey " shouldn't have said that" or sometimes shocked
silence; can be taken to mean "no comment"
:-9 or :-6 licking lips
:'-( or :_( or :*( or :…( or ;_; or ;0; shedding a tear
>:o or >:O or :@ Angry/Yelling
>:( or >=( Angry/Grumpy
;p Wink Razz
:o) clown face, can mean tongue-in-cheek
;-^) tongue-in-cheek
};-> or >:-) or }:-) or >: or >:P eyebrows or horns; evil, being mean, a devil
}:=3) or }:=8) a dragon (smile version), complete with horns and snout
0:-) halo over the head, an angel, innocence
XD or xD childish laugh, or laughing really hard
-: or : horror (read right to left)
:V mouth opened comically wide (in some communities, .g. Ragnarok Online, it is
considered a duck)
:- angry
:-> grin
:*) blush; (sometimes used to illustrate "drunk")
:-)* kiss 2
:^o liar liar
:-& tongue-tied
:-{ mustache
>:o~ Devil with goatee
;( Sad wink/Crying
(:3= Walrus
:3 Sign of cuteness, a kitty face (curiosity), or "buttface"
;-) or :> or ;> witty, or pleased
> or >) Evil
>( or < "or" >P Mad, Furious
:J variation of the typical smiling face
<3 "heart" as in " <3 U"; sometimes parodically extended to "<33333" or replaced
with "less-than-three"
<8 "heart" as in " <8 you" but shows infinite love. This maintains the heart
shape and also maintains a similarity between 8 and the infinity symbol.
</3 a broken heart, often used alone
<# "hate" as in " <# you" (the # symbol shares the 3 key on some keyboard
layouts)
|_ "take a seat"
\_ "recline it" (stronger form of "take a seat")
_ _ "full recline" (strongest form of "take a seat")
orz or OTL or OTZ a person facing left and crouching on hands and knees with
their head on the floor. May denotes despair, worship, or intense laughter.
^5 high five
%-} amused
\-o bored
0:) angel
:Q what?
:'-) crying with joy
:-* oops
8) froggy
:() can't stop talking
(:| egg head
8-| nerd
:,( crying
:-6 exhausted
|-0 yawning
:-@ screaming
|-) hee hee
%-) confused
:-)(-: married
:-{} blowing a kiss
~:-0 baby
:-V shouting
:-/ uncertain, disappointed
(\:=) Hitler
-): Picasso
-[-(A^-A)] Contradiction
<°)))>< Goldfish
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.
They're also usable for displaying "animations", .g. a crowning process:
o/" _o
o_ "\o
o_ <ö
o/ \ö/
Or for displaying how to dance "YMCA":
\o/ ^o^ o< /o\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\ or <o> despair, cowering
\o/ joy, note that \m/ and \,,/ is "METAL"
<o/ _o> <o> dancing
<o_/ \_o/ fencing
>-<o jumping, diving
o7 saluting
*\o/* cheerleader
<o o> honor
/=O=\ goatse
mlln Middle finger
Posture emoticons
orz (sometimes seen as OTL Or2, On_, OTZ, O7Z, Sto, Jto, _no, _|￣|○) spawned a
subculture in late 2004 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., à 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.
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.
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, .g. ^^. Characters like hyphens or periods can
replace the underscore; the period is often used for a smaller, "cuter" mouth or
to represent a nose, .g. (^.^). Alternatively, the mouth/nose can be left out
entirely, .g. (^^). The parentheses also can often be replaced with braces, .g.
{^_^}. Many times, the parentheses are left out completely, .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, .g. <(^_^)>
Basic examples(^_^) or (^-^) or (^ ^) smiley
(`_^) or (^_~) wink
(>_<) pretending to be cute, or pain, or frustration
(<_>) sad
(^o^) singing, or laughing maniacally
(-_-) flipping the bird
\(^o^)/ very excited (raising hands)
(-_-) or (~_~) or (=_=) annoyance, resignation, or sleeping (eyes shut), grumpy
(-_-;) or (^_^') or (^_^);; or ^_^" nervousness, or sweatdrop (embarrassed;
semicolon can be repeated)
(-_-#) or (-_-¤) vein (used to show frustration)
(¬_¬) eyeing something or someone, or otherwise glaring, sometimes used as an
expression of rolling one's eyes
(<_<) or (>_>) or (c_c) skepticism, looking around suspiciously
(;_;) or (T_T) or (ToT) 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 sometimes changeable to other
currency symbols such as (¥_¥) )
(x_x) or (+_+) dead, exhausted or knocked out; giving up, lost, confused
(n_n) happy, pleased
(u_u) annoyance, sarcasm, sometimes disappointment
(9_9) rolling eyes
(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 or TToTT exaggerated crying, so that the eyes are closed and
tears stream down the face
I_I "What?", mellow
^.=.^ A dragon smiley!
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.
Users of 2channel in particular have developed a wide variety of unique
emoticons using obscure characters. Some have taken on a life of their own and
become characters in their own right, like Mona.
Graphic emoticons
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. These are ofen heavily animated, some
taking up to at least a full five seconds to fully loop, and sometimes (mostly
on instant messengers) with sound embedded in, to bring it to full life.
