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Internet slang

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

Internet slang consists of slang which users of the Internet have developed and/or utilized. Many of its terms originated with the purpose of saving keystrokes: as a result of this, many use the same abbreviations in text messages (see txt). The terms often appear in lower case, 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 of the voice - such as sarcasm.

Emoticons (or smilies) such as ":)" can go some way towards clarifying emotional intent in Internet messages. As with other Internet slang, netizens 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.

Contexts

Internet slang occurs in various means of electronic communication. In order of most to least frequent use:

  • Text messaging on cell phones involves slang even more heavily abbreviated than Internet slang, due largely to the relatively inefficient text-entry method.
  • Instant messaging provides a very common medium of use, since brevity forms an important part of communication in this environment. Emoticons often convey emotions in instant messaging.
  • Chatrooms, especially those connected to instant messaging, often foster abbreviations and emoticons.
  • Chatrooms on IRC sometimes use abbreviations, and more frequently lowercase text (for speed) and emoticons. IRC-users often employ emoticons to express sarcasm.
  • A few Internet forums use Internet slang. This may happen for the sake of speed, as in forums like FaceTheJury; or, on forums where more "proper" grammar prevails, it may give a sarcastic tone to speech, such as FYAD on the Something Awful Forums. Forum-based slang tends to appear more specialized and localized than other types of slang.

Origins

The vocabulary of Internet slang draws from many different sources — typically environments that placed value on brevity of communication. Some terms, such as FUBAR have roots as far back as World War II[1]. Other terms come from more recent forms of communication, such as TTY and IRC.

Chat acronyms originally developed on pre-Internet bulletin board systems. A handful (for example, 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. Similar systems have since come into use with users of text-messaging wireless telephones.

With the rise of instant messaging services (ICQ, AOL, 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 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. These may one day creep into common usage and end up in the dictionary. Examples of this include:

  • addy — "Address" (plural: "addys")
  • 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)
  • siggy — "Signature" (also "sig")

The form "teh" offers a special case of this transformation. This originated as a corruption of "the", and often pops up spontaneously when typing fast. So common has it become, in fact, that it has made the jump to purposeful usage. Typically it occurs in situations where the writer presents as self-consciously enthusiastic, mimicking the less-grammatical Internet newbie: "That movie was teh suck!!", "The fight scene with all the Agent Smiths was TEH AWESOME", etc. It occurs most commonly in "teh suck", "teh lame", and "teh shit", although "teh shit" has the same meaning as cool or "teh cool". Jeff K. of Something Awful 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 forums. From the days of FIDO mail when most computers ran DOS we find <G> meaning "Grin", <BG> "Big Grin", <VBG> "Very Big Grin", and of course <VBSEG> "Very Big S***-Eat*** Grin".

Usage notes

Common disclaimer phrases (or parentheticals) 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)
  • AFK (Away from Keyboard)

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, 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". [2]

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.

Common examples

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

  • lol – laugh(ing) out loud
  • bbl – be back later
  • brb – be right back/bathroom break
  • lmao – laugh(ing) my ass/arse off.
  • pwn – to own
  • 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!

For a much more detailed list of Internet slang and abbreviations, see List of Internet slang.

See also

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