Emoticons, or “emotion icons”, are little text pictures used to indicate facial communication, for example to punctuate a comment intended to be funny. They are often called smileys after the “face smiley”, the most commonly used emoticon, invented by Scott Fahlman as described in the quote at the top of this section.

Again showing the endless adaptability of human ingenuity, very soon after Fahlman’s post many variations on the basic smiley were invented to enhance the new medium, and so the simple smiley gave way to the more generalized name “emoticon”.

Consisting of just three or four characters, with an admirable economy the emoticon manages to convey a human face with a recognizable and distinct expression, looking like a unique keyboard character or icon. Feel free to have some fun and create some emoticons yourself.

Emoticons are usually printed leaning left, although some can be reversed to lean right if they are made up of characters that are symmetrical. A few are only printed left. Some of the most common emoticons are listed below.

Resources. Comprehensive, creative lists of emoticons can be found at the following sites:

• Open Directory – Smileys