smilies

emoticon
:-)
smiley
smilies

   <chat> /ee-moh'ti-kon/ An {ASCII} {glyph} used to indicate an
   emotional state in {electronic mail} or {news}.  Although
   originally intended mostly as jokes, emoticons (or some other
   explicit humour indication) are virtually required under
   certain circumstances in high-volume text-only communication
   forums such as {Usenet}; the lack of verbal and visual cues
   can otherwise cause what were intended to be humorous,
   sarcastic, ironic, or otherwise non-100%-serious comments to
   be badly misinterpreted (not always even by {newbies}),
   resulting in arguments and {flame wars}.

   Hundreds of emoticons have been proposed, but only a few are
   in common use.  These include:

    :-)	"smiley face" (for humour, laughter,
   	friendliness, occasionally sarcasm)

    :-(	"frowney face" (for sadness, anger, or upset)

    ;-)	"half-smiley" (ha ha only serious); also
   	known as "semi-smiley" or "winkey face".

    :-/	"wry face"

   These may become more comprehensible if you tilt your head
   sideways, to the left.  The first two are by far the most
   frequently encountered.  Hyphenless forms of them are common
   on {CompuServe}, {GEnie}, and {BIX}; see also {bixie}.  On
   {Usenet}, "smiley" is often used as a generic term synonymous
   with emoticon, as well as specifically for the happy-face
   emoticon.

   The emoticon was invented by one Scott Fahlman on the {CMU}
   {bboard} systems on 1982-09-19.  He later wrote: "I wish I had
   saved the original post, or at least recorded the date for
   posterity, but I had no idea that I was starting something
   that would soon pollute all the world's communication
   channels."  {GLS} confirms that he remembers this original
   posting, which has subsequently been retrieved from a backup
   (http://research.microsoft.com/~mbj/Smiley/BBoard_Contents.html).

   As with exclamation marks, overuse of the smiley is a mark of
   loserhood!  More than one per paragraph is a fairly sure sign
   that you've gone over the line.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (2006-07-12)