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LOL (also written lol) is a common element of Internet slang used, historically, on Usenet but now widespread to other forms of computer-mediated communication, and even spread to face-to-face communication. It is an abbreviation for "laughing out loud", "laugh out loud" or "'lots of laughter'". "LOL" is one of many initialisms for expressing bodily reactions, in particular laughter, as text, including initialisms such as "ROTFL" ("roll(ing) on the floor laughing"), a more emphatic expression of laughter, and "BWL" ("bursting with laughter"), above which there is "no greater compliment" according to Magid.

The list of initialisms "grows by the month" and they are collected along with emoticons and smileys into folk dictionaries which are circulated informally amongst users of Usenet, IRC, and other forms of (textual) computer-mediated communication. These initialisms are controversial, and several authors recommend against their use, either in general or in specific contexts such as business communications.

The use of LOL to express laughter is unrelated to other uses of the abbreviation, many of which, such as "lots of love", predate the Internet. LOL has also replaced the more-obvious "Ha!" that letter writers use.

Analysis

Many people are critical of "LOL" and its related acronyms, and there is some debate over their use. lol can also mean lots of love, or sometimes used in the form of lollylops or lolzord Lacetti, professor of humanities at Stevens Institute of Technology, and Molsk in their essay entitled The Lost Art of Writing are critical of the acronyms, predicting reduced chances of employment for students who use such acronyms, stating that "Unfortunately for these students, their bosses will not be 'lol' when they read a report that lacks proper punctuation and grammar, has numerous misspellings, various made-up words, and silly acronyms."

Yunker and Barry in a study of on-line courses and how they can be improved through podcasting have found that these acronyms, and emoticons as well, are "often misunderstood" by students and are "difficult to decipher" unless their meanings are explained in advance. They single out the example of "ROFL" as not obviously being the abbreviation of "rolling on the floor laughing" (emphasis added). Haig singles out "LOL" as one of the three most popular initialisms in Internet slang, alongside "BFN" ("bye for now") and "IMHO" ("in my humble opinion"). He describes these acronyms, and the various initialisms of Internet slang in general, as convenient, but warns that "as ever more obscure acronyms emerge they can also be rather confusing". Bidgoli likewise states that these initialisms "save keystrokes for the sender but might make comprehension of the message more difficult for the receiver", that "lang may hold different meanings and lead to misunderstandings especially in international settings", and thus advising that they be used "only when you are sure that the other person knows the meaning".

Hueng, in discussing these acronyms in the context of performative utterances, points out the difference between telling someone that one is laughing out loud and actually laughing out loud: "The latter response is a straightforward action. The former is a self-reflexive representation of an action: I not only do something but also show you that I am doing it. Or indeed, I may not actually laugh out loud but may use the locution "LOL" to communicate my appreciation of your attempt at humor."

David Crystal notes that use of "LOL" is not necessarily genuine, just as the use of smiley faces or grins is not necessary genuine, posing the rhetorical question "how many people are actually 'laughing out loud' when they send LOL?". Franzini concurs, stating that there is as yet no research that has determined the percentage of people who are actually laughing out loud when they write "LOL".

Victoria Clarke, in her analysis of telnet talkers, states that capitalization is important when people write "LOL", and that "a user who types LOL may well be laughing louder than one who types lol", and opines that "these standard expressions of laughter are losing force through overuse". Egan describes "LOL", "ROTFL", and other initialisms as helpful as long as they are not overused. He recommends against their use in business correspondence because the recipient may not be aware of their meanings, and because in general neither they nor emoticons are (in his view) appropriate in such correspondence. Lindsell-Roberts shares that view and gives the same advice of not using them in business correspondence, "or you won't be LOL".

Spread from written to spoken communication

"LOL", "ROTFL", and the other initialisms have crossed from computer-mediated communication to face-to-face communication. Teenagers in North America now sometimes use them in spoken communication as well as in written, with "ROFL" pronounced "roʊf•ful" or "raf•ful" and "LOL" pronounced "lʌl" or "lahl" for example. David Crystal — likening the introduction of "LOL", "ROTFL", and others into spoken language in magnitude to the revolution of Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the 15th century — states that this is "a brand new variety of language evolving", invented by young people within five years, that "extend the range of the language, the expressiveness the richness of the language". Commentators disagree, saying that these new words, being abbreviations for existing, long-used, phrases, don't "enrich" anything; they just shorten it.

Conversely, a 2003 study of college students by Naomi Baron found that the use of these initialisms in computer-mediated communication, specifically in instant messaging, was actually lower than to be expected. The students "used few abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons". The spelling was "reasonably good" and contractions were "not ubiquitous". Out of 2,185 transmissions, there were 90 initialisms in total, only 31 CMC-style abbreviations, 49 emoticons, and only 76 occurrences of "LOL".

Variations on the theme

Despite it being an English acronym, it is often used by non-English speakers as-is, even in other scripts (eg. Template:Lang-ar, Hebrew: לול, Cyrillic: лол).

Translations in widespread use

Most of these abbreviations are usually found in lowercase.

• lal or lawl — can refer to either a pseudo-pronunciation of LOL, or the German translation (although most German speakers use "LOL"). Saying "lawl" is sometimes meant in mockery of those who use the term LOL, and not meant as serious usage. However, "lawl" can sometimes stand for "laughing a whole lot".
• ｗ — used commonly in 2channel, a Japanese equivalent of the acronym. (w stands for Warashii, which means 'to laugh' in Japanese.)
• lolz — plural form occasionally used in place of "LOL".
• mdr — French version of the expression "LOL", meaning "mort de rire". Roughly translated, it means "dead from laughing".

Other languages

Lol is a Dutch word (not an acronym), which, conveniently, means 'fun' ('lollig' means funny).

LOL in Sinhalese refers to a tropical cherry.

Parody

In the episode of Monk (TV series) called "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy", first broadcast on February 23, 2007, and as shown in a promo clip on USA Network during the preceding week: The title character begins to use the Internet, and is so happy at receiving his first e-mail that he tells a colleague, "It's enough to make me 'LOL' out loud".

References

1. ^ Matt Haig (2001). E-Mail Essentials: How to Make the Most of E-Communications. Kogan Page. p. 89. ISBN 0749435763.
2. ^ Louis R. Franzini (2002). Kids Who Laugh: How to Develop Your Child's Sense of Humor. Square One Publishers, Inc. pp. 145–146. ISBN 0757000088. {{cite book}}: line feed character in |publisher= at position 23 (help)
3. ^ Michael Egan. Email Etiquette. Cool Publications Ltd. pp. 32, 57–58. ISBN 1844811182.
4. ^ Jiuan Heng (2003). "The emergence of pure consciousness: The Theatre of Virtual Selves in the age of the Internet". In Peter D. Hershock, M. T. Stepaniants, and Roger T. Ames (ed.). Technology and Cultural Values: On the Edge of the Third Millennium. University of Hawaii Press. p. 561. ISBN 0824826477.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
5. Eric S. Raymond and Guy L. Steele (1996). The New Hacker's Dictionary. MIT Press. p. 435. ISBN 0262680920.
6. Lawrence J. Magid (2001). The Little PC Book: Windows Xp. Peachpit Press. p. 287. ISBN 0201754703.
7. Steven G. Jones (1998). Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Community and Technology. Sage Publications Inc. p. 52. ISBN 0761914625.
8. Silvio Lacetti and Scott Molsk (2003-09-06). "Cost of poor writing no laughing matter". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. "Article co-authored by Stevens professor and student garners nationwide attention from business, academia" (Press release). Stevens Institute of Technology. 2003-10-22. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. Frank Yunker and Stephen Barry. "Threaded Podcasting: The Evolution of On-Line Learning". In Dan Remenyi (ed.). Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Learning, University of Quebec at Montreal, 22-23 June 2006. Academic Conferences Limited. p. 516. ISBN 1905305222. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help); line feed character in |publisher= at position 21 (help)
11. Hossein Bidgoli (2004). The Internet Encyclopedia. John Wiley and Sons. p. 277. ISBN 0471222011.
12. David Crystal (2001-09-20). Language and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 0-521-80212-1. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. Victoria Clarke (2002-01-30). "Internet English: an analysis of the variety of language used on Telnet talkers" (PDF). {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts. Strategic Business Letters and E-Mail. Houghton Mifflin. p. 289. ISBN 0618448330.
15. Neda Ulaby (2006-02-18). "OMG: IM Slang Is Invading Everyday English". Digital Culture. National Public Radio. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. jadedlistener (2006-02-25). "OMG, that's, like, so uninteresting!". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. ^ Kristen Philipkoski (2005-02-22). "The Web Not the Death of Language". Wired News. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

• Russ Armadillo Coffman (1990-01-17). "smilies collection". Newsgroup: rec.humor. Retrieved 2006-12-22. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) — an early Usenet posting of a folk dictionary of abbreviations and emoticons, listing "LOL" and "ROTFL"
• Connery, Brian A. (1997-02-25). "IMHO: Authority and egalitarian rhetoric in the virtual coffeehouse". In Porter, D. (ed.). Internet Culture. New York: Routledge. pp. 161–179. ISBN 0415916844. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Ryan Goudelocke (August 2004). "CREDIBILITY AND AUTHORITY ON INTERNET MESSAGE-BOARDS" (PDF). Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College: 22. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

See also

• List of Internet slang
• Leet

• Slang
• Internet slang
• Internet memes