AFAIK
Internet users have developed many slang terms over the years. Most of these are not actually acronyms as they cannot be pronounced, but that is what they are called nonetheless. Many of these terms originated for saving keystrokes and are often written in lower case.
Popular Abbreviations and Acronyms
- 2 --- "to"
- 2B - "to be"
- 2B||!2B -- "to be or not to be"; from the C Programming Language logic operation 'OR' "||" and 'NOT' "!".
- 4 - "for"
- AFAIC --- "as far as I'm concerned", or "as far as I care", or "as far as I can..."
- AFAIK --- "as far as I know"
- AFAIR --- "as far as I recall", or "as far as I remember"
- AFK --- "away from keyboard"
- ASAP --- "as soon as possible"
- ASL --- "age, sex, location"; used when a user wants to find out more (i.e. age, sex and location) about a fellow user. Also used as an introductory phrase.
- B2B --- "business to business"
- BBL --- "be back later"
- BBS --- "be back soon", or "bulletin board service"
- BFD --- "big fucking deal"
- BRB --- "be right back"
- BTW --- "by the way"
- CU --- "see you"; used as a goodbye.
- CYA --- "see you"; used as a goodbye.
- CYS --- "check your settings"; a phrase often said by technical support staff of a certain Australian ISP.
- C&V --- "chapter & verse"; used in newsgroups.
- C|N>K --- "coffee through nose into keyboard"; a Unix-ism meaning.
- DMY --- "don't mess yourself"; from an episode of The Simpsons.
- DUN --- "don't"; commonly used by Singaporeans.
- FAQ --- (formal) "Frequently Asked Question"
- FFS --- "for fuck's sake!"
- FUD --- Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt; purposeful spread of misinformation.
- FO --- "fuck off!"
- FOAD --- "fuck off and die!"
- FOAF --- "friend of a friend"; the dubious attribution given to urban legends
- FTP --- (formal) "File Transfer Protocol"
- FXP --- (formal) "File eXchange Protocol"
- FYI --- "for your information"
- G2G, GTG --- "got to go", also "good to go" in MMORPG or MUD settings.
- G4Y, GFY --- "good for you", or "go fuck yourself"; the use of this acronym is ambigious and not recommended.
- GAGF --- "go and get fucked"
- GG --- "good going" or "good game"; used sincerely in online games such as trivia, but more often used sarcastically when someone has done something foolish. Also, it is now becoming customary for all players to say "gg" when the game is over in such games as Counter-Strike, unless a player is profoundly displeased with the outcome.
- GJ --- "good job"
- H8 --- "hate", or 'H1' to 'H9' to indicate how much does a person hates something.
- HAND --- "have a nice day"
- HTH --- "hope this (or that) helps"
- IANAL --- "I am not a lawyer"; usually used before a non-lawyer gives legal advice, as a humorous disclaimer.
- IANARS --- "I am not a rocket scientist"
- IC --- "I see", also "in character" in MMORPG or MUD settings.
- ICYDK / ICYDN / ICUDK -- "in case you didn't know"
- IIRC --- "if I recall correctly"
- IMO --- "in my opinion"
- IMHO --- "in my humble opinion", or "in my honest opinion"
- IMNSHO --- "in my not so humble opinion"; an egotistical alternative to the above
- IRC --- (formal) "Internet Relay Chat"
- IRL - "in real life"; usually in MMORPG or MUD settings.
- ISTR --- "I seem to recall"
- IYDMMA --- "if you don't mind me asking"
- J00 --- Leet speak for "you". Commonly spelt as j00, as in leet speak the letters are usually in lower case and O's replaced with a 0's.
- J00R --- Leet speak for "you're" or "your". Commonly spelt as j00r, as in leet speak the letters are usually in lower case and O's replaced with a 0's.
- JJ --- "just joking"
- JK, J/K --- "just kidding"
- JOOC --- "just out of curiosity"
- K --- "OK"
- KEWL, KOOL --- "cool"; in the American sense.
- L8 --- "late"
- L8R --- "later"; as in "see you later"
- LEET, L33T, 1337, 31337 --- "elite"
- LMAO --- "laughing my ass off"
- LOL --- "laughing out loud", or "lots of laughs"; as a reply to something amusing. Also "lots of love" (not as common).
- MYOB --- "mind your own business"
- NM, NVM --- "never mind"
- NOYB --- "none of your business"
- NP --- "no problem"
- NSFW --- "not safe for work"; indicates that a link should be avoided due to pornography or other content unsuitable for the workplace. Used by Fark and some message boards. See also SFW.
- NT --- "no text"; used on Internet forums or Usenet to indicate that a post has no content.
- N/M --- "not much"
- O --- "oh"
- OIC --- "oh, I see"
- OMG --- Exclamation, "oh my God!"
- OMFG --- Exclamation, "oh my fucking God!"
- OMFL --- Exclamation, "oh my fucking lag!"
- OOC --- "out-of-character"; usually in MMORPG or MUD settings. Also, "out of curiosity".
- OT --- "off topic"
- OTOH --- "on the other hand"
- PFO --- "please fuck off"
- PITA --- "pain in the ass"
- PLS, PLZ --- "please"
- PO, PO'd --- "piss off", or "pissed off"
- P2P --- (formal) "Peer-to(2)-Peer"
- QOOL, QOOLZ --- "cool"; in the American sense.
- R --- "are"
- R8 --- "right"
- RL --- "real life"; usually in MMORPG or MUD settings.
- ROFL (or ROTFL) --- "rolling on the floor laughing"; as a reply to something extremely amusing.
- ROFLMAO (or ROTFLMAO) --- "rolling on the floor laughing my ass off"; as a reply to something extremely amusing.
- RTFA --- "read the fucking article"; applies mostly to Slashdot threads, for users who make comments on a story without having read it first.
- RTFM --- "read the fucking manual" or "read the fine manual"; the frequent reply to a request for basic help from newbies who have not attempted to find the answer for themselves.
- RTFP --- "read the fucking post"; derived from RTFA and also used on Slashdot.
- RU --- "are you"
- SCNR --- "sorry, could not resist."
- SFW --- "safe for work"; material (pictures, webpages) that is safe for the office. Used by Fark. See also NSFW.
- STFU --- "shut the fuck up"
- SUX0RS --- Leet speak for "sucks". Commonly spelt as sux0rs, as in leet speak the letters are usually in lower case and O's replaced with a 0's.
- TBH --- "to be honest"
- THNX, THNZ, THX, THZ --- "thanks"; this can be combined into 'kthx' (OK, thanks), 'plzkthx' (Please, OK, thanks), and 'kthxbye' (OK, thanks, goodbye)
- TIA --- "thanks in advance"
- TTFN --- "ta ta for now"
- TTYL --- "talk to you later"
- TY -- "thank you"
- U --- "you"
- UR --- "you're" or "your"
- WOOT --- Originally a hacker expression used after gaining root, now a general expression of joy over some outcome.
- W8 --- "wait"
- WDUWTA --- "what do u wanna talk about?"
- WTF --- "what the fuck?"
- WTH --- "what the heck?", or "what the hell?"
- W/E --- "whatever"
- W/O --- "without"
- X>* --- definition of something [X] is better than everything [
].
- YMMV --- "your mileage may vary"
- _|_ --- an offensive emoticon signifying the middle finger
- <3 --- "love"; made from the ASCII art heart between the less than symbol and the three.
Concepts
Others express concepts peculiar to the Net:
- cluebie --- a newbie with a clue, but not close to a guru.
- guru --- an expert in some technical topic, such as as C programming or Unix system administration
- FAQ --- frequently asked question, or a list of frequently asked questions with answers. Never seems to be written in small letters.
- flamer --- one who 'flames'; To rant on about some relatively uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude or with hostility towards a particular person or group of people. "Flame" is used as a verb ("Don't flame me for this"), a flame is a single flaming message. Also is likely to relate to the term lamer.
- gamez --- illegally obtained games (c.f. warez).
- hijack --- to start an offtopic discussion, ex. "hijack a thread" on a message board.
- kewl --- alternate form of "cool".
- liek --- sarcastic misspelling of like, as in "I LEIK PIE". Often used as an insult to one's intelligence and/or typing ability.
- lurker --- one who reads an email list or a message board but does not participate in the discussion.
- luser --- synonym of "user", often derogatory.
- newbie --- a new user. Not a pejorative term (but see RTFM, preceding).
- noob --- shorthand spelling of "newbie". Also spelled 'n00b', with two zeroes rather than two O's (see leet) or 'newb'.
- own, 0wn, owned - to defeat someone (used commonly when playing Counter-Strike) or to humiliate someone tactically in a debate; something that is extremely cool (ex. BMWs totally own).
- pwn, pwned --- deliberate typo of the word own. To "pwn something" means to have complete control over it, and to be "pwned by something" means to be dominated by it. (see leet)
- r0x0rz --- leet speaks for "rocks"
- troll --- a person who deliberately stirs up trouble (see article).
- warez --- illegally obtained software.
- w00t --- exclamation of excitement or happiness; closely related to, "hell yea!" (short for woohoo) or We Owned the Other Team
Words Incorporated into the English language
Internet abbreviations are often made up on the spot, therefore many of them can be confusing, obscure, or even nonsensical. This type of on-the-spot abbreviating leads to doldrums of such things as: OTP (on the phone), PO (pissed off), or the more common, OPTD (outside petting the dog). Another thing common to Internet communication is the truncation and morphing of words to more typing-friendly forms. These may one day creep into common usage and end up in the dictionary. Some examples of this are:
- addy for address (addys is the plural)
- pic for picture (pics or pix is the plural)
- prog for computer program
- prolly for probably
A special case of this last form is 'teh'. This is the corruption of 'the', and often pops up spontaneously when typing fast. So common is it, in fact, that it has made the jump to purposeful usage. Typically it is used in situations where one is being 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. This sarcastic usage originates with JeffK.
Internet writing is, by its nature, difficult to interpret, especially in chatrooms or on instant messaging, because much of it is quickly input, and many assume, falsely, their audience knows their body language. For instance; a LOL may be taken as genuine laughter or sarcasm, or as "whatever, stay away from me." So, for the sake of accurate and easily understandable communication, it is best to be as explicit as possible and make an effort to get your point across. Emoticons such as :) can also be used to clarify emotional intent in internet messages.
See Also
External Links
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