Initialisms and Internet slang

Initialisms

EEUC : “Equipment Exceeds User Capabilities”

ESTO : “Equipment Smarter Than Operator”

FGI : “Fucking Google It”

FTA : “From The Article”

GBTFW : “Get Back To Fucking Work”

GFE : “Google Fucking Exists” – coined by Dan Savage

GIYD : “Google It You Dumbass” (pronounced “GUIDE”)

GIYF : “Google Is Your Friend”, or “Google It You Fuckwit”

GLOG : “Go Look On Google”

GMF : “Got Me Fucked”; Often used by Technical Students after Technical Instructors ask a really difficult question.

ID-TEN-T – replace TEN with 10, the word reads ID10T, or idiot.

JFGI : “Just Fucking Google It”

JFWI : “Just Fucking Wiki It” – a derivative of JFGI found on IRC.

PEBKAC : “Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair”

PEGA : “Pilot Error! Go Around!”

PICNIC : “Problem In Chair Not In Computer”

OTFM : “Open The Fucking Manual”

RTFA : “Read The Fucking Article” – commonly used on Slashdot, digg, Fark, and Wikipedia; usually said to someone who has obviously posted a comment without reading the relevant article.

RFMF : “Read the Fucking Manual First”

RTFC : “Read The Fucking Card” – used by Magic: The Gathering players as a reminder not to make play errors based on not reading the cards, or for programmers, “Read The Fucking Code”.

RTFMA : “Read The Fucking Manual, Asshole”

RTFFAQ or RTFF : Read The Fucking FAQ

RTFN : “Read The Fucking News”

RTFQ : “Read The Fucking Question” – sometimes used by technical instructors to prevent exam errors due to a less-than-thorough reading of the test item by the student. Also “RTMFQ”.

RTFS : “Read The Fucking Source” – commonly used by programmers to other programmers or sufficiently technically aware people who would benefit from looking at the source code.

RTGDM : “Read the GOD Damned Manual”

RTFW: Read The Fucking Wiki (or Walkthrough)

STFNG : “Search The Fucking News Group” – probably goes back at least to the advent of DejaNews in 1995. The earliest citation Google Groups has for it is March 1999.

STFW : “Search The Fucking Web” – first seen on Usenet in 1996 (may also mean “so the fuck what?”)

TFA : “The Fucking Article” – also commonly used on Slashdot and Fark to refer to the article in question.

UTFG : “Use The Fucking Google”

UTFSF : “Use The Fucking Search Function”

UTFW : “Use The Fucking Wikipedia”

UTSL : “Use The Source, Luke” – a parody on the popular Star Wars line; commonly used in Linux context, where the basic or fallback type of installing software is the installation from (manually downloaded) source code instead of installing via packages.

WTFM : “Write The Fucking Manual” – seen in a post on the R-help mailing list: “This is all documented in TFM. Those who WTFM don’t want to have to WTFM again on the mailing list. RTFM.” (Barry Rowlingson, R-help, October 2003). Later used by Branden Robinson as the title of apresentation on writing man pages.

Internet slang

Acronyms and abbreviations

Abbreviations are probably the most used kind of internet slang. A simple three- or four-letter abbreviation can be used instead of a string of words. For example, “TTYL” means “Talk To You Later,”, “LOL” generally stands for “Laugh Out Loud” (although it can signify “Lots of Laughs” or “Lots of Love”).

Abbreviations vary within internet groups, particularly for online games where each game’s subculture develops its own terms. For example, in the online Massive multiplayer online role playing game World of Warcraft, “AP” generally means “Attack Power” while in the MMORPG Maple Story it means “Ability Points.” This can lead to considerable confusion for the new user.

In many cases these abbreviations may also be used as acronyms. Outside internet use, the abbreviation “LOL,” signifying the pronunciation rather than the abbreviation, is finding its way into normal conversation, pronounced either (“ell oh ell”) as an abbreviation or as an acronym (“lohl” or /lʌl/).

The word “w00t” (pronounced woot) may be an acronym for “We Owned (beat severely) the Other Team,” though other etymologies are also considered plausible. This is common in after-match chatrooms in team-based gaming servers where players can discuss the round after playing it. In conversational context, however, it means “hooray,” “yay,” or “huzzah.”

Emoticons (smileys)

Main article: Emoticon

Emoticons – also known as smileys – are a form of ASCII art where a short sequence of printable characters is used to resemble a facial expression and convey an emotion.

The basic “western style” smiley is :), where the colon or number 8 represents the eyes and the parenthesis the mouth, forming a rough approximation of a “happy face.” However, using a bracket for the smile in the face so it looks like :] is gaining widespread popularity. Many people also use this form of smiley because it is seen as a “cooler” alternative to the normal smiley. Many emotions may be more easily recognized by tilting one’s head to the left, and a great many variants exist, such as 8D, =), =D, =>), >=D,:p, |=[, >8), >XD, XP,|8[,8-0. There is another form of “smileys” that resemble a wink by combining a semicolon and your choice of mouths. ;]

The other major style of emotion, which does not require the viewer to tilt their head, evolved in East Asia. In the basic smiling manga emotion,^_^ , the carets representing the eyes, and the underscore a mouth. Another popular east Asian emoticon is (^ﾑ^), using a Japanese character to represent the nose.

‘Emoticons’ most probably found their origins in the early days of e-mail as a method of avoiding a potentially embarrassing or emotionally damaging misunderstanding by clarifying intent, similar to the slang jk, meaning just kidding.

Common emoticons or “smileys” are those showing if one is happy :), if one is sad :(, if one is shocked 8-O. Each smiley has a character, and when used represents how the person is feeling or how another person is feeling.

‘n00b’ and ‘newbie’

Main article: n00b

The word “n00b” is used in internet slang coming from the word “newbie.” Generally, the term “newb” is used endearingly for a newcomer to a game or commonplace. However, “noob” is an insulting word aimed at someone who has persisted in an environment but is being ridiculed for lack of skill and/or knowledge of the environment. There are also many variations of the word “noob”, such as “nub”, “naab” , “fr00b”, or “n00b,” but it is not to be confused with the mostly non-offensive “newb.” In some places, such as popular MMORPGs, this can be attributed to someone who has been in a certain place for a long time and retains their ignorance.

The term “newbie” is usually regarded as less of an insult than “noob.” Newb is generally reserved for a person who is simply new to a game/topic and has not yet full understanding of its working. Noob is used to classify someone who has persisted in a game/topic and still acts poorly, whether in skill or demeanor.

Format tagging

A variation of tagging meant to resemble XML or HTML code is used to give emphasis on posts on blogs, forums, or message boards. For example, in HTML, when “<b>” and “</b>” are placed around text, a web browser will display it in boldface. Because emotions and inflection do not apply to text, Internet users will use custom XML tags for such emphasis, such as “<sarcasm>…</sarcasm>” “<rant>…</rant>” or “<white lie>…</white lie>”. These “tags” are often meant to be generally humorous or informative. The opening tag may also sometimes be omitted when a block of text’s designation as such is not meant to be known at first, such as when a sarcastic comment is made and only after the reader finishes it do they see the closing </sarcasm> tag and realize the intent of the message. Fake BB-codes are similarly used.