Words and Partial Words
One of the funniest websites I've found to date is based on the iPhone's "autocorrect" feature. This is the phone's ability (or, inability) to predict what a person typing text into the phone actually means when he or she types something incomprehensible.
The website is called Damn You Autocorrect, (http://damnyouautocorrect.com) and it's a collection of some of the funniest and most mind-boggling attempts by the phone's algorithms to complete a wrongly-spelled word.
I leave it to your imagination what some of them might be, but better yet, stop over at the website and be prepared to laugh uncontrollably.
Along those lines, texting shorthand continues to evolve. Even though I text all the time, and consider myself to be reasonably conversant in the lingo, I find myself stumbling over new entries. (And I continue to wonder how on earth kids raised today are ever going to learn to speak and write properly, but I digress.)
Once just confined to texts, shorthand expressions are cropping up on Facebook posts and in emails - in short, in any form of electronic communication, and new ones are entering the lingua franca every day. (Interestingly, many of these terms have meanings that go beyond the mere acronym - similar to ASL (or Ameslan, American Sign Language, or the hand language employed by the deaf). There are words that have no "literal" translation.)
And, there is a large and growing collection of terms that while not directly tied to texting, are definitely in the category of "meme," or an idea that catches fire and passes from person to person rapidly. For example, the use of the word "Really?" said with heavy, ironic emphasis, that conveys dismay, disbelief, incredulity, cynicism, and put-down.
Here are just a few of them, some old, some new.
TIL: today I learned
RAWR: roar, I own you, I won, yay, and I love you (in dinosaur).
WTF: just what you imagine it means
ROLF: rolling on the floor laughing
STFU: a more direct way of saying, please be quiet
Work mouth: speaking in a pc way, as if at work, or somewhere you need to be careful not to be offensive
Mansplain: to explain in a condescending manner
Just sayin': I know it sounded offensive, but it's got to be said
Wall and HB: wish somebody a happy birthday on their Facebook wall
haha: the preferable way to now say LOL. If you say LOL you are... probably over 50.
PHOBAR: Photoshopped beyond all recognition
@TEOTD: an expression I hate when spoken, too - "At the end of the day," that is to say, when a final analysis is done...
AFAIK: as far as I know
IMHO: in my humble opinion
and the never to be forgotten, K: OK!
The website is called Damn You Autocorrect, (http://damnyouautocorrect.com) and it's a collection of some of the funniest and most mind-boggling attempts by the phone's algorithms to complete a wrongly-spelled word.
I leave it to your imagination what some of them might be, but better yet, stop over at the website and be prepared to laugh uncontrollably.
Along those lines, texting shorthand continues to evolve. Even though I text all the time, and consider myself to be reasonably conversant in the lingo, I find myself stumbling over new entries. (And I continue to wonder how on earth kids raised today are ever going to learn to speak and write properly, but I digress.)
Once just confined to texts, shorthand expressions are cropping up on Facebook posts and in emails - in short, in any form of electronic communication, and new ones are entering the lingua franca every day. (Interestingly, many of these terms have meanings that go beyond the mere acronym - similar to ASL (or Ameslan, American Sign Language, or the hand language employed by the deaf). There are words that have no "literal" translation.)
And, there is a large and growing collection of terms that while not directly tied to texting, are definitely in the category of "meme," or an idea that catches fire and passes from person to person rapidly. For example, the use of the word "Really?" said with heavy, ironic emphasis, that conveys dismay, disbelief, incredulity, cynicism, and put-down.
Here are just a few of them, some old, some new.
TIL: today I learned
RAWR: roar, I own you, I won, yay, and I love you (in dinosaur).
WTF: just what you imagine it means
ROLF: rolling on the floor laughing
STFU: a more direct way of saying, please be quiet
Work mouth: speaking in a pc way, as if at work, or somewhere you need to be careful not to be offensive
Mansplain: to explain in a condescending manner
Just sayin': I know it sounded offensive, but it's got to be said
Wall and HB: wish somebody a happy birthday on their Facebook wall
haha: the preferable way to now say LOL. If you say LOL you are... probably over 50.
PHOBAR: Photoshopped beyond all recognition
@TEOTD: an expression I hate when spoken, too - "At the end of the day," that is to say, when a final analysis is done...
AFAIK: as far as I know
IMHO: in my humble opinion
and the never to be forgotten, K: OK!
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