emoticon is a term that evolved in internet culture from mailing
list and usenet users.

(something I've always wondered is how to pronounce the word. "emote-icons"?, "emohshicons"?)

During the early days, someone [[anyone have more details here?]]
used the ASCII string ''':-)''' to indicate a smile.


Re: History of "emoticons" try: http://www.fastcompany.com/launch/launch_feature/emoticon.html
or Google for "Scott Fahlman"  -- [Dave Griffin]


Since that time, many emoticons have evolved [[someone want to put
some urls here to emoticon encyclopedias - preferably freely distributable
ones??]]

In recent years, several of the graphical messaging clients have added
a graphical touch - converting ascii strings typed by the users into
some icon.

[Tkchat] recently added this functionality.  Some of the emoticons it supports
includes:

 :-( :^( :(              - cry!
 8-( 8^( 8( 8-| 8^| 8|   - growl
 LOL lol                 - Laugh Out Loud
 >:( >:-( >:^(           - mad
 :-o :^o :o :-O :^O :O   - surprise
 :-) :^) :)              - smile
 :-D :^D :D              - big smile
 <:-) <:^) <:)           - dorky smile
 8-) 8^) 8)              - smiley with glasses
 :-p :^p :p              - animated smiley with tongue
 ;/ ;-/ ;^/ :/ :-/ :^/ 8/ 8-/ 8^/  - smirk with glasses
 :-P :^P :P                - smiley with tongue, 2
 (: (^: (-:              - upside down
 ;-) ;^) ;)              - animated wink
 :-| :^} :8} :}          - blush
 LP                      - A reference to coffee/tea/beer
 |O| |o| |0|             - gone to eat
 zz zzz zzZ zZZ ZZZ ZZ   - gone to sleep
 LP  |_P                 - A reference to coffee/tea/beer/et cetera (the shape is similar to a cup).
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[BBH] notes that versions as of 42 supports a /smile command (or /smiles /smiley /smileys) to display a window with all
the emoticons & which ascii triggers them

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[Category Internet]