(
EMOTional
ICON) A pictorial expression of feeling in a message rendered as text. Carnegie Mellon professor Scott Fahlman is credited with creating the first emoticon (the "smiley") using the text characters
:-) in an online message in 1982.
Pronounced "e-
mo-tih-con," the symbols are stored in the Unicode character set. Word processing, email and other character-based programs may automatically convert emoticon text into an icon. See
emoji,
emotag,
Unicode and
alphanumerish.
Emoticon Meaning
:-) smiley, happy face
:-( frown
;-) wink
:-D big smile
:-O mouth open in amazement
:-Q tongue hanging out in nausea
:-{) moustache
:-{)} moustache and beard
8-) wears glasses
(-: left handed or Australian
:*) red nosed, suggesting inebriation