LOL was added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in 2011, but the origin of the phrase can be traced back to the 1980s. The dictionary points to an electronic newsletter from the International FidoNet Association, dated 8 May 1989.
People began to use lol during the 1980s, and by the mid-1990s it was widely used in digital communications, including email, instant messaging, and online message boards. Later on, lol became widespread on social network platforms.
According to linguist Ben Zimmer, the first recorded use of LOL is from the May 1989 edition of the FidoNews Newsletter (though some have disputed this). Almost everyone who has typed these acronyms knows that don't always represent physical laughter.
The Murky Internet Origin Story
Pearson says he used it on the now-defunct bulletin board system Viewline. His message was in response to a friend making him truly laugh out loud. He believes LOL spread across the platform and into other online platforms as Viewline users moved to GEnie and AOL.
In the 1960s a columnist on the San Francisco Chronicle called Herb Caen invented LOL and used it referring to “little old ladies” (Still laughing out loud, 11 August).
We use lol as a way of downplaying a statement; adding irony, levity, humility, empathy, or commiseration; expressing amusement; or just neutral acknowledgment.
ROFL...
And Can't Get Up. DWI: Driving While Incontinent. LOL: Living On Lipitor.
Except for maybe your parents. In today's edition of breaking "news" that's not new to you at all, nobody uses "LOL" anymore. Well, to be precise, just 1.9 percent of Facebook users claims to be laughing out loud, which means the acronym is on the verge of extinction.
If you're not sure what to say, just send “lol” back! Then, it's up to them to figure out if and how to continue the conversation. You could also send “hehehe” or “hahaha.”
KKLK — Kakaloka. NKKLK — Nakakaloka. MSHT — Make someone happy today. DGM — Don't get mad.
Lol is an acronym of laugh out loud. It can be used as an interjection and a verb. Lol is one of the most common slang terms in electronic communications. Even though it means laugh out loud, lol is mostly used to indicate smiling or slight amusement.
Lmao Origin
According to Slate.com, one of the first times that we have any record on the internet of the use of LMAO is back in 1990. In an online forum for the game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, a user by the name of Torquin wrote "LMAO!" in response to another user's hilarious comment "Sayaka".
In the 1980s, Wayne Pearson was reportedly the first person to have used LOL while responding to a friend's joke in a pre-Internet digital chat room called Viewline. Instead of writing "hahaha," as he had done before when he found something humorous, Pearson instead typed "LOL" to symbolize extreme laughter.
skull emoji?
Gen Z uses them as a symbol for laughter. The skull emoji ?was added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015, and millennials used it in a lighthearted way, too—usually to indicate playful exhaustion.
That Phat. When something is cool or awesome, you might say, “That phat!” Make sure to spell out P.H.A.T.
("Schwing," by the way, is '90s slang for excitement, first coined by Mike Myers in his "Wayne's World" Saturday Night Live sketch and movie spin-offs.).
If it seems like he's sending a lot of “lol” or “haha” texts, it's probably because he's trying to keep the mood light. The only reason a guy would do that is if he likes you. He wants you to know he's fun and upbeat to talk to.
When a woman stops texting you, stops responding to messages, or doesn't respond to a date request, she's probably either uninterested or trying to bide her time and feel out her other options.
Gen Zers told CNN Business they like to assign their own meanings to emoji, which then spreads to others in their cohort, often through social media. For example, the emoji of a person wearing a cowboy hat (?) and the one of a person simply standing have both come to signify awkwardness.
Aged between eight and 23 years old, generation Z or the post-millennial generation will take the lead in a few decades.
Keith Broni, editor in chief of online emoji encyclopedia and archive emojipedia.org, said Gen Z tends to use emoji with much more nuance and creativity than prior generations because they grew up using them.
We can chuckle and chortle. We can snicker and snort. We can cackle, cachinnate, and crack up. We can even guffaw.
“LOL can mean whatever you want: an actual, genuine laugh; a sarcastic, derisive snort; an acknowledgment of another person's presence,” wrote Kyle Chayka for New York Magazine in 2015.
roll(ing) on the floor laughing. (used to show that you find something extremely funny) I'm still ROFL after reading that joke. That photo made me ROFL—it was hilarious!