How old are emoticons? We tend to associate them with texting and emails, but, in fact, emoticons date back to the 19th century (see a facsimile of a newspaper article within this article).
The word emoticon is a blend of the two words emotion and icon. Many emoticons, eg the smiley face, transcend language and are understood in most countries. The emoticon :-) was first used in a digital context in 1982 by Scott E Fahlman of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University.
Emoticons can be culture-specific. The three capital letters OTL in some cultures represent a kneeling person and represents failure, disappointment or despair; the O is the head, the T the body with the top of the T representing the two arms, and the L the bent legs.
For a bit more on emoticons see this article. Wikipedia has a good page, too.
Hm. had no idea :-)
Posted by: Stef | September 25, 2011 at 12:09 AM
Thanks, Stef!
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | September 27, 2011 at 10:02 AM
Emoticons existed long before computers sat on desks or laps, when they lived in huge boxes in air conditioned rooms. These computers were not owned by individuals, but by schools, businesses, research institutions and the government. Smaller institutions leased access to other people’s computers. Information was often not even entered in real time.
Posted by: chris | September 29, 2011 at 09:12 PM
Fantastic article. This is why more and more bars will have breathalyzer vending machiners in the up coming years.
Posted by: Breathalyzer Vending | December 11, 2011 at 05:33 PM
Computers have invaded our lifes, therefore it is just normal that we have the tendency to relate every thing to software. We can see it expecially with the great careers offered to graduated of Computer schools.
Posted by: Chicago it training | August 13, 2012 at 02:18 PM