Internet slang consists of slang that users of the Internet have developed and utilized. Many of its terms originated with the purpose of saving keystrokes, (for example, "u" for "you", "r" for "are", "4" for "for", etc.) as a result many use the same abbreviations in text messages (see txt). The terms often appear in lower case, with capitals often reserved for emphasis - the pronoun "I", for example, often appears simply as "i".
Common disclaimer phrases (or parentheticals) also often contract into acronyms — they tend to come at certain parts in a sentence, which can facilitate decoding. Some of these include:
IMHO (in my humble opinion)
AFAIK (as far as I know)
IANAL (I am not a lawyer)
The untrained eye often finds Internet slang difficult to interpret because content in spoken language that speakers convey in the intonation and tone of the voice, such as sarcasm, do not readily transfer to written text.
Although Internet slang has a close relationship with leetspeak, only online gamers traditionally used leet, whereas much larger groups of Internet users commonly use Internet slang. Suggested slang terms for Internet slang include AOL speak, AOLese, and AOLbonics — coined to sound like Ebonics.
Emoticons such as ":)" can go some way towards clarifying emotional intent in Internet messages. As with other Internet slang, netizens may use emoticons both genuinely and sarcastically; for example the ":-P" emoticon, which can express either genuine amusement and a sense of fun, or express a negative sarcastic comment on something another user might have said.
Chatacronyms or chaq (pronounced "chalk") originally developed on pre-Internet bulletin board systems. A handful (for example, ASAP, PO'ed) far pre-date computers. The three-letter acronym (TLA) remains one of the most popular types of abbreviation in computing and telecom terminology and slang. Similar systems have since come into use with users of text-messaging wireless telephones.
These lists could usefully expand to include citations of the earliest usage, where references exist.
Internet abbreviations evolve and change continually. Online games provide a good place to observe language variation in use. Often, people uninterested in computer programming do not understand the more classically "nerdy" phrases like "2B||!2B" (which means "to be, or not to be"), thus they become useless or appear only in minority forums.
^H — Signifies pressing the backspace key. "What an idio^H^H^H^Hinsightful comment!" (Stems from the use of Ctrl + H as backspace in some Unix shells)
^W — Similarly, this means erasing the last word. "I mean, who really gives a^W^W cares?"
> — Greater than (as in "Linux > Windows" or "Windows > Linux"). Use of an asterisk (*) in this context sometimes denotes a wildcard, for example,. "John > *" means "John is greater than all". (Depending on context, the reader may substitute the word "owns" in place of the phrase "is greater than". Another possible interpretation here may state: "John is better than all")
^ ^ or ^__^ or ^^ — an emoticon signifying happiness, especially used by anime fans. "Chuckle marks"
>_< or >< — an emoticon signifying frustration or embarassment
>_> — an emoticon used to indicate sarcasm or suspicion, sometimes used with <_< to indicate shifty eyes
T__T — Crying (often implying crying in a humorous way)
>^.^< — cat face or a face that has crinkled up with laughter
@_@ — symbol for a very tired person trying to stay awake, going crazy, dizzy.
$_$ - Money hungry
:-) smiley face (as with many things in computerspeak, the reader should view this emoticon sideways)
;-) winking
-__- — disgusted, annoyed, etc.
^o^ — laughing, cheerful, joyous, similar to ^^
^^__^^ — Angel
(^_^) — Happy face
[*_*] — Scared, in awe
><)))*> — somethings fishy
=^__^= — Cat face, blushing
-^__^- — Blushing
=_= - tired, with bags under eyes
<^__^;> — symbol for embarrassment commonly used by anime fans
_|_ — an offensive emoticon signifying the middle finger
_W_ — "What ever", "I do not care"
‹^› — another form of the middle finger
..i.. — yet another form of the middle finger (often seen in pairs)
<3 — "love"; ASCII art for a heart, the less-than symbol and the three resemble a heart tilted on its side.
</3 — "hate"; ASCII art for a broken heart, similar to <3.
== — agreement; from the C equality operator; means "me too" or "what he said"
!= — disagreement; from the C inequality operator; means "is not (necessarily) the same as" Sometimes also written as =/= as in mathematical notation.
++ — Used after the manner of the C operator to indicate something "one greater" than itself, for example: "Awesome++"; also used similarly to the "doubleplus" prefix in Newspeak.
-- — Opposite of ++, indicating something "one less" than itself.
@ — "at". Some users go so far as to replace all "at" sounds in words with @, so "fat" becomes "f@"; "matter" = "m@er" and so forth, although this occurs relatively rarely.
* (asterisk) — applied around a word or phrase to indicate emphasis or italics, or just typing in bold face. Singly, in chat, in front of a word or phrase at the beginning of a line means a correction to one's own previous typo. It recently started being used for an action. E.G *Jumps up and down*
_ (underscore) — similar to asterisk, but means underlining of a word or phrase. For example, "Do you _really_ think that?"
/ (forward slash) — indicates italicized text, similar to the underscore for underlined text
-0_o- — an emotion expressing confusion, shock, drunkenness or a "high" state
0.o — an emoticon expressing confusion or shock, signifying the user saying "WHAT!?!?"; also designating a drunken or high state
Ô_ô — an emotion expressing confusion, shock, drunkenness or a "high" state
\o/ or \^o^/ — the 'yayman', representing the pose that someone with something to celebrate might adopt. In contexts such as forums, where small images replace emoticons, some type of happy emoticon image often replaces the 'o'.
\ob — similar to the yayman, the 'b' represents a thumbs-up.
/o\ — more or less the opposite of the yayman, here the figure puts his hands on his head: 'Oh no!'
!!!111!!!11!!!11 - To make fun of noobs/newbs/n00bs on the net, or to also make fun of AOL people, put at end of sentence.
!!!!!!!!11!!!11!!!11!!One - See above
!?!? or ?!?! or !? or ?! — showing surprise and confusion; this basically expresses anger, shock/surprise, or confusion, and rarely speechlessness
ajkaf;lsdjfjdskl;afj (any random string of lowercase characters, usually from the keys in home position on the keyboard) — hysterical laughter
69 — from the 69 sex position. Usually found in AIM screen names
666 — The triple sixes often represents Satan, not not Internet-specifically. They can occur in screennames
807, 8075 — "BOT(s)"; a person who demonstrates an extreme lack of knowledge or common sense. Originally deriving from forum or instant message bots, which often respond to pre-programmed keywords and commonly-used phrases humorously, without really making any coherent sense
88, 881 or 886 — "bye bye" (Chinese pronunciation). In some racist chat rooms it means "heil Hitler", because the letter "H" comes eighth in most Roman alphabets
ASAP — "as soon as possible", predates the Internet.
ASL — "Age, sex, location"; used to request general information about a fellow user. Also used as an introductory phrase, usually when expecting that information up-front. (Some will consider this request rude)
BTW (2) — "Better Than Working", refers to an activity that can be done at work that is better than working. Like reading a blog or a humorous website, etc...
bump — to comment for the sole purpose of bringing a thread to the top of the page. Used in forums.
BURMA — "Be Undressed Ready My Angel" (dates back to World War II; pre-Internet)
B/T, BT — "Between" or the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol.
BYOC — "Bring your own computer". Often used in connection with computer gaming events. May also stand for Build Your Own Computer. For example, Quakecon is a BYOC Lan Party in North America.
C
Cec — "sex", used to get around Internet chat filters.
Chown (Ch0wn3d) — a deliberate mis-spelling of "own" (see "own" entry below).
CID — "Consider it done"
CiS — "Chuckle(ing) in Silence", "chuckling very quietly"; as an alternative to "LOL"
cig — Short for cigarette or cigar
cluebie — A clueless newbie (but sometimes apparently confusingly used to mean "a newbie with a clue, but not close to a guru")
CMIIW — "Correct me if I'm wrong"
CoD — "Call of Duty"; World War II first person shooter PC Game*
coo — "Cool"
CPL — "Actually standing for CyberAthlete Professional League, the biggest LAN event, but has become an alternative to call some "leet" (good) for example, "OMG you're CPL"
CS — "Counter-Strike"; Widely played First Person Shooter game; Computer Science.
CTD — "Crash To Desktop" - Used to indicate that the speaker's game has crashed.
CTF — "Capture the flag". A gaming mode where two teams have a flag each and the objective capturing the other team's flag. Or Capture that fucker!!!!
ctm. — "Chuckle to myself"
CU — "see you"; used as a goodbye, commonly together with "l8r" (later), as in "cul8r", often abbreviated to merely "cul". See also "cya".
CUNT — See You Next Time (C & U are slang for see & you)
CUWUL — "Catch up with you later"
CWOT — "Complete waste of time"
CYA — "See you"; used as a goodbye (see "cu"). Also, "check(ing) your ass", or "cover your ass", as in taking some precautionary measure just for safety's sake, or to avoid blame in a risky (but necessary) action (predates the Internet).
cyberbug — someone who spends too much time on the Internet
CYFF — "Change your font fucker!"; used when someone has an annoying and hard to read font.
DD — "Don't die". Usually used in online real-time strategy games.
Dede — "See Dedish - sometimes used in conjunction - dede dedish."
Dedish — "Rarely used term - similar in meaning to W00t. Sometimes used in conjunction with dede - dede dedish."
dernoe — "(I) don't know"
DGT — "Don't go there"
DH — "Dear husband". Used by housewives posting on Internet forums.
DH — "Dickhead"
DIAF — "Die in a Fire"
DILLIFC — "Do I look like I fucking care?"
DILLIGAF — "Do I look like I give a fuck?"
DIRFM — "Does it really fucking matter?"
DIY — "Do it yourself"
DKDC — "Don't know, don't care", usually used when a person is apathetic about something.
DL, D/L — "Download"; receiving data from a remote host. Usually functions as a noun or verb. Can sometimes mean "down-low", as taken from real-life usage.
DLF — "Dropping like flies"; said when many participants have left a chat room suddenly
DM — "Deathmatch". A gaming mode with the goal of fragging as many other players as possible during a given time.
DMY — "Don't mess yourself"; from an episode of The Simpsons.
EDMW — Eat Drink Man Woman Forum Page from Hardware Zone forum in Singapore
EG — "Evil grin", normally written *EG* or <EG> to separate it from the surrounding text.
ehlp — Deliberate misspelling of "help" (making fun of newbies yelling for help in a MMORPG)
EIL — "Explode into laughter"
El-OH-EL; Another way to write down "lol" which stands for "laughing out loud" or "laugh out loud". Used humorously to imply that people use "lol" too much
EOF — "end of file"—used to imply the end of something
ESABATM — "Eat Shit and Bark at the Moon", a riposte to someone allegedly behaving like an 'SOB'
ESAD — "Eat shit and die"
e-Slang — Term used to include all abbreviations and coined terms used in e-mail, instant messaging, chatrooms, and online gaming (such as MUDS, MUCKS, etc.) (Stacy Crosby , 2004)
EULA — End-User License Agreement (a popular topic on many MMORPGs)
frag — To kill or tear to pieces. Its origin comes the Vietnam War or earlier, from "fragmentation grenade". It had a particular application to "fragging" 2nd lieutenants or hated officers, especially in the jungle.
FTF or F2F — "Face to face"; referring to a meeting in the real world, not online. In role-playing terms, it is the offline predecessor to MMORPGs and MUDs.
FTW — "For the win"; Indicates the end of the game, it is often used to reference the object responsible for victory. Also sometimes shown as 4tw.
FU — "Fuck you" (predates Internet)
FUBAR — "Fucked up beyond all repair" or "fucked up beyond all recognition" (predates Internet). (Possibly led to the metasyntactic variablesfoo and bar)
FUBAH — "Fucked up beyond all hope"
fucktard — "Fucking Retard"
FUD — "Fear, uncertainty and doubt"; purposeful spread of misinformation.
GG — "Good going" or "good game"; used sincerely in competitive and cooperative online games, or used sarcastically when someone has done something foolish. Also "genuine girl", used on chat sites to indicate that the user is female, rather than simply pretending to be.
GGMF — "Great Godzilla Motherfuckers!", first quoted in Dealer McDope No. 1 (drawn by Dave Sheridan)
GGPO — "Good Game, Peace Out" originating from underground Street Fighter gaming communities. Namely, http://www.shoryuken.com. Possibly also rooted in Ebonics. Used to convey either good games, or losing games. (e.g. drinking + driving = ggpo). Often shortened to just "peaced out" (e.g. He was driving drunk, hit a wall, and got peaced out.)
GH — "Good half", used in online round-based games such as Counter-Strike.
Ghey — "Gay"
GIS — Google Image Search; searching for images through the Google search engine
GJ — "Good job", often sarcastic
GL — "Good luck"
Gl hf — "Good luck, have Fun." Usually used in online gaming.
GMTA — "Great minds think alike"
gnite, GN8 — "Good night"
"gno" — Gonna (Going to do)
GR8 — "Great", sometimes spelled gre8t even though it doesn't make the word any shorter.
Grats — Abbreviation of "congratulations". Used in MMORPGs when a played reaches a new rank or level
GTFO — "Get the fuck out"
GTG — "Got to go"
GTH — "Go to hell"
GTP — "Got to Pee"
guru — An expert in some technical topic, such as C programming or Unix system administration
GW — "Good work", often used sarcastically.
H
H8 — "Hate", or "H1" to "H9" to indicate how much a person hates something.
HAI — A purposeful misspelling of "hi"; Japanese for "yes"
HAMMRD* — "Hammered, also meaning pwn/pwned/owned. See pwn"
HAND — "Have a nice day"
Hawt — variation of "hot", used to suggest that someone seems attractive
HAX, H4X; "Hacks, term most commonly used in multiplayer games by new players (see n00bs) to accuse someone of hacking, more commonly than not because of their own lack of skill. (see pwned)"
HAXOR, H4X0R; "Hacker"
HB — "Hurry back"
HB — "Herremange Byte" Danish expression for a large amount of data. Also abbreviated to "H", it may appear in various other expressions, like "HP—Herremange Pornofilm" (large amount of pornographic movies), etc.
HBD — "Happy birthday"
HF — "Have fun"
hijack — To start an off-topic discussion; "hijack a thread" on a message board.
hmwk — "Homework"
HNG — "Horny net geek"
H/O — "Hold on"
HoBO — Person who plays Games, expecially HoB (www.heatofbattle.net)
HPB — "High ping bastard" or "High ping bait", reference to those with high latency (ping) usually in online games. The opposite of LPB
hysterical raisins — Phonetic-based variation of the term "historical reasons". Used to dismisses given reasons as absurd, obsolete and/or detrimental to progress
HWG Here We Go
HWGA Here we go again
HWP — "Hug, Wave, Poof"; A way of saying "goodbye"
I
IANAL — "I am not a lawyer"; usually used before a non-lawyer gives legal advice, as a (sometimes humorous) disclaimer.
IANARS — "I am not a rocket scientist"
IC — "I see", also "in character" in MMORPG or MUD settings.
IRL — "In real life"; often used in online games to refer to life outside of the game, see RL. Made famous by the movie "The Net" starring Sandra Bullock.
IRT — "In reply to"
ISTR — "I seem to remember/recall"
ITT — "In this thread"; first used on forum.canucks.com in White Noise.
ITYM — "I Think You Mean"; usually prefacing a humorous "correction"
IWIAMUAFTP — "I wonder if anyone makes up acronyms for this page"
IYDMMA — "If you don't mind me asking"
IYKWIM — "If you know what I mean"
J
JAHOYFT — "Just ask him/her out you fucking tool", used to motivate persons suffering from unnecessary trepidation
JAK — "Jazak Allah Khair", Arabic expression for thank you
KOS — "Kill on Sight"; used to designate enemies in online games whom -- based on their prior actions -- one should kill
KREE! — "Attention!"
KS — "Kill steal"; used in online games with an experience (EXP) system, when one player defeats an enemy already weakened by another player.
L
L8, L8R — "Late", "later"; as in "see you later", often used together with CU, as in CUL8R.
LAFFO — Signifying laughter
Llama — Lame player
LATN — "Laugh at the newbs"
LBR — "Little boy's room"
LD — "Link dead"; used in online games when a disconnected user's persona or character remains in the game.
LEO - "Law enforcement officer"
LEET, L33T, 1337, 31337 — "Elite", used ironically; also another kind of slang where numbers and symbols replace similar-looking characters.
Lewt — "Loot" Often used as "Lewt fast 'n' Bewt ass".
LIGAFF — "Like I give a flying fuck"
LIGAS — "Like I give a shit"
LION — "Like it or not..."
LIUY — "Look it up yourself"
LKY — "Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor of Singapore"
LMAO — "Laughing my ass off"
LMAOnade — A homophonous extension of LMAO that humorously refers to "lemonade"
Chairman LMAO — similar to above, referring to the first Communist ruler of China.
LMFAO — "Laughing my fucking ass off"
LMTFA — "Leave me the fuck alone"
LOFL — "A recursive play on ROFL; LOFL on floor LOFLing"
LOL — "Laughing out loud", or "lots of laughs"; as a reply to something amusing. Also "lots of love" (not as common). Alternatively allegedly derived from the Dutch word lol ("fun")
lolcity — Something so funny the entire city laughs out loud.
lollercaust — An extreme event of hilarity.
lollerskates — Pun on the word "rollerskates"; similar usage to LOL.
Loxxen — An altered form of LOL, with virtually the same meaning, but slightly enhanced.
LPB — "Low ping bastard", reference to those with low latency (ping) usually in online games. The opposite of HPB.
LSFW — "Less Suitable for Work"
LTID Laugh 'Till I Die
LTNS — "Long time no see"
lurker — One who reads an email list or a message board but does not participate in the discussion.
NB — Short for "nabei", commonly used in mmorpgs as a swear word. Closest approximation of meaning — see CB.
NBD — "No big deal"
NFBSK — "Not for British school kids", originally from message boards at snopes.com, used sometimes in place of NSFW.
newb — Short for "newbie"; meaning someone who is new, usually at a game.
NFAHRU? — "Not from around here R U?"
NG — "Newsgroup"
NG — "No good"
Ngaaaah — A cry of frustration or triumph, which one can speak out loud by using the throat and nasal passage to produce a loud and at times annoying sound. Used comonly in some school environments to annoy a teacher as a class unit. This cry can also gain the attention of ones peers
Also "no message", used on message boards to indicate that all the text is in the post's title, and that it need not be opened itself.
NM U: "Nothing much, you?" (generally said after sup)
NMFYS — Unknown acronym from comic Badly Drawn Kitties, a webcomic. User-created "solutions" include "Not Mentioned For Your Sanity" and "Not My First Yellow Submarine," see the BDK Comic.
NMNHNLM — Acronym for "no money no honey nobody loves me" originating from HWZ forums
NN — "Night night" like "good night" Also: "Nerf Noodle" (someone who doesn't belong on a computer), or "Nazi Newbie" (a know-it-all newbie who corrects everyone)
noob — Shorthand/leet spelling of "newbie". Also spelled "n00b", with two zeroes rather than two Os (see leet) or "newb". In some Internet circles, the term "noob" or "n00b" has a negative connotation, generally not associated with "newb" or "newbie", where being a n00b carries a connotation of ignorance and laziness. N00bs may lack the energy or the gumption to RTFM or otherwise attempt to find out about a subject themselves — even given the ready availability of the information — and instead choose to bother others. A newbie, on the other hand, simply comes fresh to a subject, with no particularly negative connotations. Internet Games such as "Call of Duty", "Counter-Strike" and "Medal of Honor" commonly use the term "n00b".
n0083127z — "Nooberts" a mutation of n00b, often used to describe someone who not only demonstrates stupidity, but is also has less esteem or less power than the speaker
Norp — from pr0n. Used to discreetly speak of pornography without alerting the attention of others (less obvious in meaning than pr0n)
NORWICH; "Knickers off ready when I come home" (UK, pre-Internet)
NPNT — "No picture, no talk" Origin from Hardwarezone — EDMW
NPA — "Not paying attention"
NR — "No reserve"
NR4U — "Not right for you"
NS — "Nice shot"; used sincerely in competitive and cooperative online games such as GunBound, or Medal of Honor. Also, "No Shit"; sometimes used as "NSS" for "No Shit, Sherlock"
NSFW — "Not safe for work"; indicates that one should avoid using a link from a workplace due to the presence of pornography or of other unsuitable content. Used at Fark and on some message boards. See also SFW.
NT — "No text"; used on Internet forums or Usenet to indicate that a post has no content. Also, "nice try"; used by gamers.
NTH — "Not totally here"
NVM — "Never mind"
NWS — "Not work safe"; see NSFW.
Nyo — A usually meaningless word/particle attached to the end of sentences, similiar to the word "hiyo" used by Johnny Carson
O
O — "Oh"
OAR — On a roll — referring to someone's luck during Internet games. Winning several games in a row (3 or more) would constitute an OAR.
OBTW — "Oh, by the way"
OS — "Oh, shit!"
oh noes!!!!111 — An exaggerated expression of despair, often used for humorous effect.
OIC — "Oh, I see"
OMG — Exclamation, "Oh my God/goodness!"
OMFG — Exclamation, "Oh my fucking God!"
OMGWTFBBQ — "Oh my God, what the fuck, bar-be-que."; used in a humorous manner in reference to those who abuse Internet slang.
OMGWTFNIPPLES — "Oh my God, what the fuck, nipples", used in a humorous manner in reference to those who string together too much Internet slang in one word
OOC — "Out-of-character"; usually in MMORPG or MUD settings when a player isn't acting out his/her part. It was also used in fanfiction to indicate likewise. Also, "out of curiosity".
OOO — "Out of the office"; Used similarly to MIA. "Ken is OOO today." Also, OpenOffice.org.
OP — Original poster
Op — Operator, a moderator or moderators of a chat room
OSIB — "Open skull insert brain"
OT — "Off-topic"
OTP — "One true pairing", meaning two characters believed to be perfect together, usually not canon. Used in fanfiction.
OTOH — "On the other hand"
OTW — "On the way"
OUACOWA — "Open Up A Can Of Whoop-Ass", meaning an amaizing thing. Coined from the roleplay game Unknown Armies.
OU812? — "Oh you ate one too?", reference VanHalen for 'You're stoned too?' druggie slang.
OXO — Norwegian/Danish shortening of the word "også", which translates to "too" or "also"
own, owned, OWN3D, ownt — (see also pwn) To defeat someone (used commonly when playing Counter-Strike) or to humiliate someone tactically in a debate; to exhibit extreme coolness (for example: "BMWs totally own").
PIIDB — "Put it in da butt, referring to anal sex."
PITA — "Pain in the ass"
PICNIC — "Problem in chair, not in computer", referring to in human error. See PEBKAC and ID10T.
Piconjo — A shared account on www.newgrounds.com. Large numbers of people, under the guise of Piconjo accounts, submit explicit animations of NG animators, in an attempt to "pwn" them. Piconjo speaks in fluent 1337 and claims to have "pen0r power".
Pic(s), pix — Used in reference to a picture. Usually posted when someone wants another person to post a picture. This could be used in many different situations, but is most prominent when someone is talking about a woman or girl.
PLS, PLZ — "Please" — predates Internet
PM — "Private message"
PMG — Can sometimes be seen instead of "omg", which means "oh my God"
PMIBD — "Pardon me I'm brain dead!"
PMS i dont no......something to do with a womans period
PMSL — "Pissing myself laughing", synonymous with "LMAO", above and "ROFL", below.
PO, PO'd — "Piss off", or "pissed off"
POTAS; Person Of The Appropriate Sex, that is, a person of the sex that one finds attractive. A more politically correct term than "person of the opposite sex"
POS — "Parents over shoulder"; a warning, by kids, that parents may be watching. Also, "piece of shit". (Also see "PAW")
pwn, pwned (also p0wn or pwnt) — An accidental or intentional mistyping of "own". Sometimes used to speak of illegal activities. See "own" above.
P07; Another way to type "pot" as in "weed" or "grass". other ways to say this include: w33d, po7 q07 qot and \/\/33d. More abbreviations exist: see leetspeak
roffle — Alternate version of "ROFL", based on the latter's supposed verbalisation.
roffle out loud — A form of "ROFL" or "LOL", intended to mock those who use many acronyms in speech.
ROFFLMFAO — "Rolling on fucking floor laughing my fucking ass off" (Pronounced roffle-em-fayo).
roj — "Roger" aka "affirmative"
ROR — "Raughing out roud", an Engrish variant of LOL.
RSN — "Real soon now", sense of sarcasm.
ROTFLBTC — "Rolling on the floor laughing, biting the carpet"
ROTFLMHO — "Rolling on the floor laughing my head off"; alternative to ROTFLMAO. Some people may leave out the "T" so it will be ROFLMHO
ROTFLMAOSTC — "Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off scaring the cats"; another alternative to ROTFLMAO
ROFLKMD — "Rolling On the Floor Laughing Kazaa Media Desktop" or "Rolling on the floor laughing kicking my dog"; another alternative to ROFL
RTFA — "Read the fucking article"; applies mostly to Slashdot threads, in response to users who make comments on a story without having read it first.
RTFRFC — "Read the fucking RFC", similar to RTFM, telling someone to read an RFC to find his or her answer.
RTFM — "Read the fucking/friendly/fine manual", the frequent reply to a request for basic help from newbies who have not attempted to find the answer for themselves.
RTFMFM — "Read the fucking manual fucking moron"; derived from RTFM with slightly more emphasis on the newbie's lack of intelligence.
RTFP — "Read the fucking post"; derived from RTFA and also used on Slashdot.
RTFS — "Read the fucking/fine source", frequently used when documentation for a software program is lacking or absent.
RTL — "Report the loss"; usually used in online gaming; used sarcastically when one loses or gets fragged
RTSD — "Rush That Shit Down" originating from underground Street Fighter gaming communities. Namely, http://www.shoryuken.com. Possibly also rooted in Ebonics. Used to convey taking advantage of a good thing. (e.g. Filet-O-Fish only $0.99 on Fridays? RTSD!). Originally used to describe a play style where one overwhelms the opponent with many quick and up close attacks.
RU — "Are you"
rut — "Are you there?"
S
S — "Smile", usually written *S* or <S> to separate it from the surrounding text. See "G".
S2R — "Send-to-receive"; indicates that one expects to receive a file (usually an image) before he or she sends his or hers.
sif — "As if"
sifn't — "As if not", used in reply to "sif".
SCNR — "Sorry, could not resist"
SH — "Shit happens"
SLAGIATT — "Seemed like a good idea at the time" Helpful for comments when refactoring embarrassing software design decisions.
SFW — "Safe for work"; material (pictures, webpages) that is safe for the office. Used at Fark. See also NSFW. Alternate meaning (which may not be appropriate in the office): "So fucking what?"
SOW — Abbreviation of Spirit of the Wolf, a commonly asked-for spell in EverQuest, which makes a player run faster.
Smeg — Meaning the same as "fuck" or "bugger" (popularized by Red Dwarf, a British TV sitcom).
SMF — "Simple Machines Forums"
sroucks — Means even when something rocks, it sucks (or something in between), or vice versa. Often used in a sarcastic way, as to let others remain in doubt if it's praising or just the opposite.
sry — "Sorry"
srsly — "Seriously", usually used as an interjection; to signal a sarcastic response to an inane remark.
SSDD — "Same shit, different day."
SSIA — "Subject says it all"; used in newsgroup postings and the like.
TA — "Thanks again"; also English and Australian slang for thanks, pronounced taa, predating the Internet.
TBH — "To be honest"; also used within organizational charts to mean "To be hired", equivalent to TBD (to be determined) or to TBA (to be announced)
thanx, thx, thz — "Thanks"; this can form combinations such as "kthx" (OK, thanks), "plzkthx" (Please, OK, thanks), and "kthxbye" (OK, thanks, goodbye).
teh — A usually deliberate typo of "the" — its popularity stemmed from the often-misspelled original word due to its natural frequency in English sentences. When deliberate, it sometimes serves to emphasise the following adjective, for example, "You are teh fat". It can also function to dismiss a subject, as in: "Teh, I don't care".
TFA — "The fucking article"; a shorter form of "RTFA", mostly used on Slashdot
T,FTFY — "There, fixed that for you", used when displaying an edited version of another's post, to correct an error or make a humorous word—or phrase—substitution
TIA — "Thanks in advance"
TITFO — "Turn It The Fuck Off" — Common in Rainbow Six Series Games
TK — Team kill (or killing, killer, depending on context)
TLA — "Three letter acronym". TLA is an example of a TLA.
TL;DR — "Too long, didn't read"
TMAI — "Tell me about it"
TMR@IA — "The monkeys are at it again"; usually used to blame the staff of online gaming communities for any screw ups in-game.
TMI — "Too much information"
TMTOWTDI — "There's more than one way to do it"; usually used as one of the mottos of the Perl programming language.
ToS — "Terms of service"
TP — "Town Portal", in Diablo and Diablo_II, a magical scroll for getting back into town; safety. Pronounced "teepee", and may occur as a verb ("Hey, TP me!")
TPTB — "The powers that be"
troll — A person who deliberately stirs up trouble.
tr00 — "True" (used in the black metal community to refer to a supposed "true" hardcore, underground fan of the genre)
Über - German for "super" or "hyper"; often used in video games to describe someone's talent at the game. As in "I'm an Über player". Also seen written as "Uber", "Üb3r" and "Ül33R"
Übern00b — (from German 'über', super-/hyper- and a corruption of newb) "Fat newbie"
V
v — "We"
VFM — "value for money"
VoIP — "Voice over Internet protocol", or phone conversations over broadband connections.
VWEG — "Very wicked evil grin". See "G"
W
w — Japanese version of LOL (laugh out loud). Warai(笑い) in Japanese means "laughter".
W/ — "With", predates Internet
w00t, woot — Leet-speak exclamation of excitement or happiness or applauditory whistle; Used after gaining root control of a computer, can stand for "woohoo" or for "We owned the other team"
w012d — "Word" (a generally positive interjection)
W8 — "Wait"
WAI — "What an idiot"; also, Japanese for "yay" as influenced by the anime culture
WAD — "Without a doubt"
WADR — With all due respect.
waffles — Pun on "ROTFLMAO"; used similarly. In full: "Roffle my waffles"
WYSIAYG — "What you see is all you get". Like WYSIWYG, with a derogatory suggestion as to the incompleteness of the software.
WYSITWIRL — (pron. "wizzy twirl") "What you see is totally worthless in real life." A derogatory term indicating that a claim of WYSIWYG has little validity.
WYSIWYG — (pron. "wizzywig") "What you see is what you get". In the print industry, it means that printed output will look identical to its screen representation. More recently used to refer to the style of making webpages that arose through the use of HTML-generators such as MS FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. and implies that the output may appear crude and does not transfer well across all settings.
WYGIWYGAINUC-"what you get is what you're given and it's no use complaining"
X
X>* — Definition of something [X] as better than everything [*]. Often [X] stands for a user's handle and [*] for an organization or for another user. Sometimes crackers will use this as a boast and an insult when defacing a Web site, implying their superiority over the victim-organization and/or the Web site's administrators.
XD — An emoticon resembling someone laughing when rotated clockwise 90°. Also xD
ecks-dee — Another form of "XD" that emphasizes its pronunciation.
-x0r — A suffix used by H4X0Rs to emphasize a point.
YMSTICPC — "You Might Say That, I Couldn't Possibly Comment"
YNK — "You never know"
YOMANK — "You owe me a new keyboard" (after a joke causes explosive expulsion of beverage from one's mouth)
yr — "Your" or "you're"
YS — "You suck"
YSSIA — "Your spelling says it all!"
yuo — A usually deliberate typo of "you" — Possible origins include fast and/or careless typers hitting the keys out of sequence. Like "teh", it sometimes adds emphasis to a phrase (often pairing with "teh" in doing so), for example, "Yuo are teh suck"
YW — "you're welcome"
Z
z00t — Also "zoot"—bastardization of "w00t"
0day — Software or media that is illegally obtained before or on the day of the official release.
zig — "Cigarette".
ZOMG — Bastardization of "OMG", meaning "oh my God". Derived from the accidental use of the "z" key when the typist intended to use the Shift function. Pronounced "zoe my God", "zee oh em gee", or "zed oh em gee" (the last two varying on the regional pronunciation of the name of the letter Z).
Effects on the Wider Language
Users sometimes make up Internet abbreviations on the spot, therefore many of them can seem confusing, obscure, whimsical, or even nonsensical. This type of on-the-spot abbreviating leads to such things as: OTP (on the phone), PO (pissed off), or the less common, OPTD (outside petting the dog). Another feature common to Internet communication is the truncation and morphing of words to forms that users can type more readily. These may one day creep into common usage and end up in the dictionary. Examples of this include:
addy — "Address" (plural: "addys")
comp — "Computer" (already has made the leap to common spoken usage)
dun — "Don't"
ima — "I'm going to", "I'm a gonna" (predates the Internet).
pic — "Picture" ("pics", "pix" or "piccies" for plural)
prog, proggy — "Computer program"
prolly — "Probably" (The Oxford English Dictionary traces this usage back as far as 1962)
awsum — "Awesome"
siggy — "Signature"
The form "teh" offers a special case of this transformation. This originated as a corruption of "the", and often pops up spontaneously when typing fast. So common has it become, in fact, that it has made the jump to purposeful usage. Typically it occurs in situations where the writer presents as self-consciously enthusiastic, mimicking the less-grammatical Internet newbie: "That movie was teh suck!!", "The fight scene with all the Agent Smiths was TEH AWESOME", etc. It occurs most commonly in "teh suck", "teh lame", and "teh shit", although "teh shit" has the same meaning as cool or "teh cool". This sarcastic usage originates with JeffK.
Similarly, netizens may use the word "liek" as a sarcastic misspelling of like, as in "I LIEK PIE". It often implies an insult to one's intelligence and/or typing ability.
The word newbie occurs almost exclusively to refer to all sorts of new users of an Internet forum or starters in a particular field of activity. It does not function as a pejorative term per se, but can do so when combined with RTFM, etc.
"own" has become a mainstream word for "to completely dominate". It probably predates the Internet in some usages. It also sometimes appears spelt "pwn" owing to a common typing error due to the proximity of the "p" and "o" keys on a QWERTY keyboard.
