LOL

LOL, or lol, is an acronym for "laughing out loud", and a popular element of Internet slang, which can be used to indicate amusement. It was first used almost exclusively on Usenet, but has since become widespread in other forms of computer-mediated communication and even face-to-face communication. It is one of many acronyms for expressing bodily reactions, in particular laughter, as text, including acronyms for more emphatic expressions of laughter such as LMAO ("laughing my ass off") and ROFL or ROTFL ("rolling on the floor laughing").

In 2003, the list of acronyms was said to "grow by the month", and they were collected along with emoticons and smileys into folk dictionaries that are circulated informally amongst users of Usenet, IRC, and other forms of (textual) computer-mediated communication. These acronyms are controversial, and several authors recommend against their use, either in general or in specific contexts such as business communications. The Oxford English Dictionary first listed LOL in March 2011.

History

In the early to mid-1980s, Wayne Pearson was reportedly the first person to have used LOL while responding to a friend's joke in a pre-World Wide Web digital chat room called Viewline. Instead of writing "hahaha," as he had done before when he found something humorous, Pearson stated that he instead typed "LOL" to symbolize extreme laughter. Although the account is commonly accepted as true, no written record of the conversation has been found, and the exact date of origin is unknown. The earliest recorded mention of LOL in the contemporary meaning of "Laughing Out Loud" was made in a list of common online acronyms on the May 8, 1989 issue of the electronic newsletter FidoNews, according to the Oxford English Dictionary and linguist Ben Zimmer.