Smilies

What does :-) mean? Yes, it's a colon, hyphen, and end parentheses.

Hint: tilt your head to the left. It's also eyes, nose, and mouth.

I'm not even sure how to spell it: smileys?

Like prehistoric cave painters, the wired have struggled to find a new way to express themselves. Wall painting doesn't work. It takes too many words. Sounds don't display well on screens yet.

To make email feel more like personal contact, the wired use the punctuation marks on an ordinary keyboard to make faces. To read them, you have to put your head on your left shoulder.

The ur-smiley

:-)

In context, it means "I'm happy to hear from you", or other appropriate pleasantry. The smiley can wink:

;-)

or frown:

:-(

among other things. The language can express many things about the user's appearance:

8-) || :-{) || 8:-) || :-)-8 || :-Q || @:-)

These signs mean, respectively, that the user wears sunglasses, has a mustache, is a little girl, is a big girl, smokes, wears a turban.

The smiley can also indicate some subtleties of mood and response:

:-D || :-/ || :-e || :-7 || :-X

These mean that he is laughing, is skeptical, is disappointed, is wry, is keeping his lips sealed.

Many of the signs (perhaps the majority in use on America's biggest computer networks) are simply absurd fun, verging on the unintelligible:

:-F || *:o) || +-:-) || @=

The user is a bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing, is a clown, holds religious office, is pro-nuclear. The hieroglyph of our title means that the user is a drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an updraft, a mustache and a double chin. Now you know what electronic mail is used for.

The Unofficial Smilie Dictionary

The above was adapted from an email from Ting Chang, July 1996. If you use < unofficial smilie dictionary > as the search phrase at a site like Metacrawler, you'll get a long list of sites that have more long lists like the one below. Smilies are a form of ASCII art, which uses the universal keyboard characters to make pictures. Search for < ascii art > to learn more.

:-) Your basic smilie. This smilie is used to inflect a sarcastic or joking statement since we can't hear voice inflection over the Internet.

;-) Winky smilie. User just made a flirtatious and/or sarcastic remark. More of a "don't hit me for what I just said" smilie.

:-( Frowning smilie. User did not like that last statement or is upset or depressed about something.

:-I Indifferent smilie. Better than a frowning smilie but not quite as good as a happy smilie

:-> User just made a really biting sarcastic remark. Worse than a :-). :-> User just made a really devilish remark.

;-> Winky and devil combined. A very lewd remark was just made.

Those are the basic ones...Here are some somewhat less common ones:

(-: User is left handed

%-) User has been staring at a green screen for 15 hours straight :*) User is drunk

[:] User is a robot

8-) User is wearing sunglasses

B:-) Sunglasses on head

::-) User wears normal glasses

B-) User wears horn-rimmed glasses

8:-) User is a little girl

:-)-8 User is a Big girl

:-{) User has a mustache

:-{} User wears lipstick

{:-) User wears a toupee

}:-( Toupee in an updraft

:-[ User is a Vampire

:-E Bucktoothed vampire

:-F Bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing

:-7 User just made a wry statement

:-* User just ate something sour

:-)~ User drools

:-~) User has a cold

:'-( User is crying

:'-) User is so happy, s/he is crying

:-@ User is screaming

:-# User wears braces

:^) User has a broken nose

:v) User has a broken nose, but it's the other way

:_) User's nose is sliding off of his face

:<) User is from an Ivy League School

:-& User is tongue tied.

=:-) User is a hosehead

-:-) User is a punk rocker

-:-( (real punk rockers don't smile)

:=) User has two noses

+-:-) User is the Pope or holds some other religious office

`:-) User shaved one of his eyebrows off this morning

,:-) Same thing...other side

|-I User is asleep

|-O User is yawning/snoring

:-Q User is a smoker

:-? User smokes a pipe

O-) Megaton Man On Patrol! (or else, user is a scuba diver)

O :-) User is an angel (at heart, at least)

:-P Nyahhhh!

:-S User just made an incoherent statement

:-D User is laughing (at you!)

:-X User's lips are sealed

:-C User is really bummed

:-/ User is skeptical

C=:-) User is a chef

@= User is pro-nuclear war

*<:-) User is wearing a Santa Claus Hat

:-o Uh oh!

(8-o It's Mr. Bill!

*:o) And Bozo the Clown!

3:] Pet smilie

3:[ Mean Pet smilie

d8= Your pet beaver is wearing goggles and a hard hat.

E-:-) User is a Ham radio operator

:-9 User is licking his/her lips

%-6 User is brain dead

[:-) User is wearing a walkman

(:I User is an egghead

<:-I User is a dunce

K:P User is a little kid with a propeller beanie

@:-) User is wearing a turban

:-0 No Yelling! (Quiet Lab)

The invisible smilie

.-) User only has one eye

,-) Ditto...but he's winking

X-( User just died

8 :-) User is a wizard

C=}>;*{)) Mega-Smilie... A drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an updraft, a mustache, and a double chin

:] Gleep...a friendly midget smilie who will gladly be your friend

=) Variation on a theme...

:} - What should we call these? (what?)

:) - Happy

:> - what?

:@ - what?

:D - Laughter

:I - Hmmm...

:( - Sad

:[ - Real Downer

:< - what?

:{ - what?

:O - Yelling

:C - what?

:Q - what?

:,( - Crying

[] - Hugs and

:* - Kisses

|I - Asleep

|^o - Snoring

Please submit your own. I'll be happy to add to this list. Better yet, tell me a good way to organize the ones here.

last update: April 27, 1998
http://toLearn.net/marketing/smilies.htm