[Ads-l] TTYL (1985), FWIW (1989)

[Ben Zimmer]

The latest OED additions include a number of Internet abbreviations.

http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/june-2016-update/new-words-notes-june-2016/
http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/june-2016-update/new-words-list-june-2016/

I supplied early examples of many of these for Computerworld in 2008:

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

The earliest OED cite for "TTYL" ("talk to you later") is a 1988 Usenet
post. Here it is in a message archived by Textfiles from Feb. 23, 1985:

*http://www.textfiles.com/messages/BACKWATER/bw850223.txt
<http://www.textfiles.com/messages/BACKWATER/bw850223.txt>*

 "FWIW" ("for what it's worth") is dated to a 1991 appearance in the
Guardian. It appeared on a list dated July 15, 1989 (republished here in
1991):

http://www.textfiles.com/humor/COMPUTER/emoticon.txt

Garson also noted an appearance of "FWIW" in the Aug. 1990 issue of OCLC
Micro:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2011-April/108532.html

--bgz

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