Internet slang

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. 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.

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 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. 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)
• sig — "Signature" (also "siggy")

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 cool or "teh cool". Jeff K. of Something Awful popularized this sarcastic usage.

Similarly, netizens may use the word "liek" or "leik" as sarcastic misspellings of the word "like", as in "I LIEK PIE". It often implies an insult to one's intelligence and/or typing ability. "Liek" is also often used as a geeky way of typing the preposition like, for example in the phrase "...and I was liek...".

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 many computers ran DOS we find <G> meaning "Grin", <BG> "Big Grin", <VBG> "Very Big Grin", and of course <VBSEG> "Very Big Shit-Eating Grin". Lower-case variants (<g> and so on) are also used.

Usage notes

• Common disclaimer phrases (sometimes called "parentheticals") also often contract into acronyms — they tend to occur at certain points in a sentence, which can facilitate decoding. This is a fraction of the full list, but some of these disclaimers 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, 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.
• The symbols < and > or * * often enclose a user's facial expression, action, or other feeling that is difficult to express via other online methods. These are also known as emotes, stemming from emotion which is where the word emoticon has its origins as well. For instance: <smile>, *smile*, <jumping up and down>, *jumping up and down*, <very very sad right now> 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.
• The symbols <...> and </...> are often to denote the author's feelings at the time of writing an enclosed sentence or paragraph. For instance, "<sarcasm>I just love how wonderfully the new nerf to our characters has gone</sarcasm>" This notation derives from HTML. Variants exist, such as [/...] (a syntax variant found on Internet forums) and even simply "/...", as in "Internet slang confuses me! /angry".

Common examples

Main article: List of Internet slang

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

• afk – away from keyboard
• bbl – be back later
• brb – be right back/bathroom break
• gg – good game, good going
• lmao – laugh(ing) my ass/arse off.
• lol – laugh(ing) out loud
• pwn – to own
• rofl – rolling on the floor laughing
• ttyl – talk to you later
• wtf – what the fuck
• omg – oh my god!
• btw – by the way

See also

• Abbreviation
• Acronym
• Avatar (virtual reality)
• Diablospeak
• Emoticon
• Jargon File

• Leet (aka 1337)
• List of computing and IT abbreviations
• List of Internet slang
• Slang
• Smat
• Texting language (Txt)

External links

• Internet Slang Translator & Dictionary
• Jargon File webpage
• FOLDOC — Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing
• Acronym Finder — searchable acronyms and abbreviations site
• BIBLIA — Ben's Incredible Big List of Initialisms and Acronyms
• UrbanDictionary.com (Warning: Possibly offensive and sexual words on this site.)
• NetLingo.com The Internet Dictionary
• Parents' primer to computer slang from Microsoft (Warning: This site has some incorrect information.)