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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 is slang which Internet users have coined and promulgated. Such terms typically originated with the purpose of saving keystrokes: 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".

To avoid misapprehension and clarify the author's intent, netizens may use emoticons, Emoticons (or smilies) such as :), both genuinely and sarcastically; for example the :P emoticon, can express either genuine amusement and a sense of fun or a negative sarcastic comment on something another user wrote. Deciphering and understanding what was written per se versus the author's intent is part of the Internet's attraction and enjoyment. Like most jargon, Internet slang aggrandizes author and reader, as they appear to have specialized knowledge of an already complex medium.

Internet slang perhaps has a higher learning curve than face-to-face slang, as face-to-face slang can often be deciphered from the context of the facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice.

1 Origins
2 Usage notes
3 Common examples
4 See also
5 External links

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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, a computer programmer that steals and uses scripts without an understanding of the programming language, or someone who is just an idiot in general.

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" (also "probs")
sig — "Signature" (also "siggy")
asl? — "Age/Sex/Location?" (a phrase often used in internet chat rooms)

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 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.

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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 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".

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 >, ::(words):: 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 and are known as "emotags." 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".