LOL (1989)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> 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

And as the Computerworld article mentions, Wayne Pearson claims to
have coined "LOL" on Viewline, a BBS in Calgary, Alberta, in the early
to mid-80s.

http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~crwth/LOL.html

--bgz

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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org