Smileys
are tiny pictures made from ordinary ASCII characters that are meant
to be looked at with the head tilted to the left.
Smileys
came about when e-mail correspondents felt the need to convey emotional
content such as sarcasm, laughter and other feelings as part of their
messages.
Without
smileys, simple statements could easily be misinterpreted:
Sometime
during 1981, Scott Fahlman, who is 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 as small text "glyphs"
to overcome this frustration.
Scott was
the first to use smileys in electronic mail and in posts to BBS message
boards and Internet newsgroups, as well as in personal e-mail.
| The Emoticons |
| :-) |
- Humor |
| :-) (-: |
- Masking theatrical
comments |
| :-T |
- Keeping a straight
face (tight-lipped) |
| :-D |
- Said with a smile |
| :-> |
- Alternate happy face |
| :-) :-) :-) |
- Loud guffaw |
| :*) |
- Clowning around |
| :-? |
- Licking lips |
| %-} |
- Silly |
| :/) |
- Not funny |
| :-" |
- Pursing lips |
| :-r |
- Bleahhh (sticking
tongue out) |
| :-f |
- Smirks |
| :-p |
- Smirks |
| :-1 |
- Smirks |
| :-, |
- Smirks |
| :-| |
- Disgusted |
| :-J |
- Tongue-in-cheek comments |
| :-! |
- Foot in mouth |
| :-$ |
- Put your money where
your mouth is |
| :-D |
- Talks too much |
| :-I |
- Chewing on bone |
| %&$%& |
- You know what that
means... |
| :-P |
- Shouting |
| :-y |
- Shouting |
| :-o |
- Shouting |
| :-( |
- Unhappy |
| :-c |
- Real unhappy |
| (:-& |
- Anger |
| (:^( |
- Broken nose |
| (:<) |
- Blabber mouth |
| ?-( |
- Black eye |
| %-) |
- Broken glasses |
| :-b |
- Tongue stuck out |
| :-p |
- Left-handed tongue
stuck out |
| >--->---(@ |
- A rose |
| ||*( |
- Handshake offered |
| ||*) |
- Handshake accepted |
| :-x |
- Kiss kiss |
| o= |
- A burning candle
to start a flame |
| ~= |
- Flaming message |
| -= |
- A doused candle to
end a flame |
| |-<> |
- Kissy face |
| [] |
- Hug |
| (-_-) |
- Secret smile |
| '-) |
- Wink |
| ;-) |
- Say no more; nudge,
nudge |
| :-* |
- Oops! (Covering mouth
with hand) |
| :-# |
- Censored |
| :-8 |
- Talking out both
sides of your mouth |
| >:> |
- Leer |
| :-X |
- Not saying a word |
| (:-... |
- Heart-breaking message... |
| :-o |
- "Oh, noooooo!" (a
la Mr. Bill) |
| #:-o |
- Same as previous |
| ...---... |
- S.O.S. |
| :-< |
- Forlorn |
| |-( |
- Late night messages |
| (:-$ |
- Ill |
| (:-( |
- Sad |
| %- |
- Hung over |
| :~/ |
- All mixed up |
| #-) |
- Another all-night
partier |
| :-'| |
- With a cold |
| %+{ |
- Loser in a fight |
| ( ) |
- You're kidding! |
| <:-O |
- Eeek! |
| :-C |
- Unbelieving (jaw
dropped) |
| :-(*) |
- About
to vomit |