TL;DR
Internet comment on the verbosity of a post
TL;DR or tl;dr, short for "too long; didn't read", is Internet slang, often used to introduce a summary of an online post or news article. It is also used as an informal interjection, commenting that a block of text has been ignored due to its length.
History
The phrase dates from at least 2002. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its earliest known use was in a 2002 message posted on the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.video.nintendo. In 2009, the term appeared in Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined, a publication based on online crowdsourced slang database Urban Dictionary. Also in 2009, it was listed as a slang acronym in David Pogue's tweet anthology World According to Twitter. The term was added to the now-defunct Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2013.
“TL;DR” enters the record as internet comment on the verbosity of a post. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Internet, comment and verbosity can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“TL;DR” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Internet, comment and verbosity provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16886840. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2002, 2009 and 2013.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “TL;DR”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow TL;DR primary sources, TL;DR archive and Internet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “TL;DR”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “TL;DR” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.