LOL (1989)

[Ben Zimmer]

The latest OED additions include _LOL_ for "laughing out loud," dated
to a 1990 version of the Jargon File from Usenet. It also appeared in
a FidoNews newsletter dated May 8, 1989 (p. 10, under
"MO_ICONS_PLEASE"):

http://www.textfiles.com/fidonet-on-the-internet/878889/fido0619.txt

I cited the newsletter when I supplied early examples of Internet
shorthand for Computerworld in 2008:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/153504/fwiw_the_origins_of_net_shorthand.html

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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