What smiley does the bracket represent? Smileys from symbols. The meaning of an emoticon written in symbols. Animal emoticons

Emoticons have become such a part of our lives that without them the alphabet looks incomplete, and messages seem dry and distant. But even such a frivolous and childishly simple task as arranging emojis has its own subtleties.

What do different emoticons mean?

With object emoticons, everything is simple: they mean what they represent. A ball is a ball, an alarm clock is an alarm clock, and there’s nothing to think about. But with face emoticons the task becomes more complicated. We are not always able to correctly guess emotions from the faces of living people, let alone the faces of koloboks. There are emoticons whose meaning is obvious:

Fun, laughter, joy, rejoicing.

Sadness, melancholy, melancholy, dissatisfaction.

Playful mood, teasing.

Surprise, amazement, shock, fear.

Anger, resentment, rage.

And several more similar ones - all possible options for families and romantic unions.

But among the emoticons there are also those whose meaning can be interpreted ambiguously, or even be completely confusing:

This emoticon depicts a person sobbing in three - well, in two - streams, however, in the version for Apple devices, due to raised eyebrows and a mouth that is not distorted from sobs, he is often perceived as laughing to the point of tears. Be careful with them: you want to indicate grief to them, but they will misunderstand you.

This emoticon is intended to represent silence. Instead, he just scares you to death.

If everything is more or less clear with the evil devil (“angry as hell”), then the cheerful devil is somewhat puzzling. Most likely, he is not only furious, but also looking forward to dancing on your opponent’s grave. But you, perhaps, just wanted to show originality and an unusual smiley.

Despite the fact that the three wise monkeys did not see, hear or speak anything precisely because of their wisdom, these muzzles cover their eyes, mouth and ears in shame, confusion and shock.

A set of cat emoticons for those who consider ordinary koloboks to be insufficiently expressive and want to add sweetness to their emotions.

Instead of “hello” and “bye,” you can wave your hand.

Raised hands, a gesture of joyful greeting or jubilation.

The applause is both sincere and sarcastic.

If in this picture you see hands folded in a prayer gesture, then for you the emoji may mean “thank you” or “I beg you.” Well, if you see a high-five happening here, it means you are a very cheerful person.

A raised index finger can emphasize the importance of a message or express a request to interrupt the interlocutor with a question, or it can simply indicate a previous message in the chat.

Fingers crossed for luck.

For some it’s “stop”, but for others it’s “high five!”

No, it's not a truffle. Not even a truffle at all.

Ogre and Japanese goblin. Looks like someone is missing the usual devils.

Liar. His nose grows like Pinocchio's every time he lies.

These are eyes wide with amazement, and the darting eyes of a scoundrel, and even a lustful look. If someone sends you such an emoticon in a comment to a photo, you can be sure that the photo is good.

And it's just an eye, and it's watching you.

New moon and full moon. It seems like nothing special, but these emoticons have their fans who value them for their creepy facial expressions.

A very common girl in purple. Her gestures mean OK (arms above head), “no” (arms crossed), “hello” or “I know the answer” (arm raised up). This character has another pose that confuses many - . According to the official version, it symbolizes a help desk employee. Apparently, she is showing with her hand how to get to the city library.

Do you also see two tense faces here, presumably in an unfriendly mood? But they didn’t guess: according to Apple’s hints, this is an embarrassed face and a stubborn face. Who would have thought!

By the way, you can see hints for emoticons in the message window on if you open an emoji and hover over the emoticon you are interested in. Like this:

Another way to find out the meaning of an emoticon is to turn to emojipedia.org for help. On it you will find not only detailed interpretations of emoticons, but you can also see how the same emoticon looks on different platforms. Many unexpected discoveries await you.

Where are emoticons appropriate?

1. In informal friendly correspondence

Funny yellow faces are appropriate in a personal chat, where you share not so much information as your mood. With the help of emoticons, you will laugh at a joke, sympathize, and make faces at each other. This is where emotions belong.

2. When emotions splash over the edge and there are not enough words

Sometimes, when something very important happens in our lives, we are so overwhelmed with feelings that we are about to burst. Then we write an emotional post on Facebook or post a dazzling photo on Instagram and decorate it with a generous scattering of emoticons. Some people, of course, won’t like this, but what now, stifling all the bright sensations in yourself? The main thing is not to overuse such public displays of violent emotions: this will alienate subscribers and call into question your adequacy.

3. By agreement, to highlight messages in work correspondence

This is a very simple and convenient way to make important messages that require an urgent response visible. For example, great for these purposes. But you need to agree in advance which cases are considered urgent in your company and what emoticon you will use for this.

It’s important not to overdo it: if you have one emoticon for messages about emergency situations, a second for urgent issues, a third for important news, then soon all your work correspondence will turn into a New Year’s garland that no one looks at.

When is it better to do without emoticons?

1. In business correspondence

Work is no place for emotions. Here you are required to be calm, collected and professional. Even if you want to emphasize your friendliness or express concern about a situation, use , not emoticons, for these purposes.

2. When communicating with foreigners

This is especially true for gesture emoticons. For example, the person you wanted to express approval of will put an end to your good relationship with a person from Greece or Thailand. Of course, with this gesture you sent him to hell.

Therefore, if you are not confident in your deep knowledge of the peculiarities of the national culture of your interlocutor, do not take risks.

3. Oddly enough, when you discuss feelings and emotions

Feelings are a serious matter. If you are not just chatting, but revealing your soul or sharing something important, words will convey your feelings and experiences much more accurately than emoticons. “You are dearer to me than anyone in the world” means much more than ten hearts in a row. In the end, you only have one heart, so give it away.

Remember that emojis are a seasoning, not the main ingredient. You only need a small amount to add punch to your message.

Emoji language

Judging by the fact that today almost no personal correspondence is complete without emoticons, we can safely say that emoji have become an independent section of the language. Sometimes they even pretend to replace language: you can write an entire message using only emoticons. In the popular American TV show Ellen DeGeneres there is even a special section in which guests are invited to read a phrase where some of the words are replaced with emoji:

And here the name of the film is encrypted, which we invite you to guess.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. The use of emoticons when communicating in chats, on forums, on social networks, when sending comments on blogs and even in business correspondence at the present stage of Internet development is already quite commonplace. Moreover, emoticons can be displayed both in the form of simple text symbols and in graphic form, which adds the possibility of choice.

Graphic emoticons (emoji, or emoji), which we will talk about in more detail below, appearing in the form of pictures, are displayed by inserting the corresponding codes that were specially added to the official Unicode table so that users can use them almost everywhere to express emotions .

Thus, on the one hand, you can find the code of the smiley you need in a special list to insert it, and on the other hand, in order not to look for the necessary encoding every time, it is quite possible to remember the sequence of simple text characters that reflect the most frequently expressed types of emotional state, and insert them into the text of the message.

Indicating emoticons using text symbols

To begin with, in order to satisfy my perfectionist nature, I would like to say a few words about the history of emoticons. After the great Tim Berners Lee laid the foundation for the development of the modern Internet, people were able to communicate virtually unlimitedly among themselves.

However, on the World Wide Web, from the very beginning, communication was carried out in writing (and even today this type of dialogue is still very popular), and it is very limited in terms of reflecting the emotions of the interlocutor.

Of course, a person who has literary talent and the gift of expressing his feelings through text will not experience problems. But the percentage of such gifted people, as you understand, is very small, which is quite logical, and the problem had to be solved on a mass scale.

Naturally, the question arose of how to smooth out this shortcoming. It is not known for certain who first proposed text signs reflecting this or that emotion.

According to some reports, it was a famous American computer scientist Scott Elliot Fahlman, who proposed using a set of symbols for humorous messages :-), in a different interpretation :) . If you tilt your head to the left, you will see what is essentially a cheerful smiley face:

And for messages containing some kind of negative information that can evoke emotions of the opposite nature, the same Falman came up with another combination of symbols:-(or:(. As a result, if we rotate it 90°, we will see a sad emoticon:

By the way, since the first emoticons primarily identified the emotional background of the interlocutors, they received the name emoticons. This name comes from the abbreviated English expression emot ion icon— an icon with an expression of emotion.

The meaning of emoticons that express emotions through symbols

So, a start has been made in this area, all that remains is to pick up the idea and choose simple text signs with which one could easily and simply reflect other expressions of mood and emotional state. Here are some emoticons from the symbols and their interpretation:

• :-) , :) ,) , =) , :c) , :o) , :] , 8) , :?) , :^) or :) - emoticon of happiness or joy;
• :-D , :D - a wide smile or uncontrollable laughter;
• :"-) , :"-D - laughter to tears;
• :-(, :(, =(—sad emoticon made from symbols;
• :-C, :C - emoticons made from text characters, indicating intense sadness;
• :-o, - boredom;
• :_(, :"(, :~(, :*(—crying emoticon;
• XD, xD - emoticons with letters that mean ridicule;
• >:-D, >:) - options for expressing gloating (evil grin);
• :-> - grin;
• ):-> or ]:-> - insidious smile;
• :-/ or:-\ - these emoticons can mean confusion, indecision;
• :-|| - anger;
• D-: - strong anger
• :-E or:E - designation of rage in text characters;
• :-| , :-I - this can be deciphered as a neutral attitude;
• :-() , :-o , =-O , = O , :-0 , :O - these sets of symbols mean surprise;
• 8-O or:- , :-() - decoding: extreme degree of amazement (shock);
• :-* - gloominess, bitterness;
• =P, =-P, :-P - irritation;
• xP - disgust;
• :-7 - sarcasm;
• :-J - irony;
• :> - smug;
• X(—inflated;
• :~- - bitter to tears.

By the way, some emoticons from signs, when inserted, can be displayed in graphic form (this will be discussed in today’s article), but not always and not everywhere.

What do other classic text emoticons mean?

Below I will give a number of simple symbolic emoticons that reflect the state, character traits of people, their attitude towards their interlocutors, emotional actions or gestures, as well as images of creatures, animals and flowers:

• ;-(— sad joke;
• ;-) - means a funny joke;
• :-@ - cry of anger;
• :-P, :-p, :-Ъ - show your tongue, which means licking your lips in anticipation of delicious food;
• :-v - talks a lot;
• :-* , :-() — kiss;
• () - hugs;
• ; , ;-) , ;) - wink designations;
• |-O - surging yawning, which means a desire to sleep;
• |-I - sleeping;
• |-O - snores;
• :-Q - smoker;
• :-? - smokes a pipe;
• / — emoticon meaning the interjection “hmmm”;
• :-(0) - screams;
• :-X - “keep your mouth shut” (means a call for silence;)
• :-! - the meaning of nausea or an analogue of the phrase “it makes you sick”;
• ~:0 - child;
• :*), %-) - drunk, intoxicated;
• =/ - crazy;
• :), :-() - a man with a mustache;
• =|:-)= — “Uncle Sam” (this emoticon means a comic image of the US state);
• -:-) - punk;
• (:-| - monk;
• *:O) - clown;
• B-) - a man in sunglasses;
• B:-) - sunglasses on the head;
• 8-) - a man with glasses;
• 8:-) - glasses on the head;
• @:-) - a man with a turban on his head;
• :-E - this set of symbols denotes a vampire;
• 8-# - zombies;
• @~)~~~~ , @)->-- , @)-v-- - rose;
• *->->-- - clove;
• <:3>
• =8) - pig;
• :o/ , :o
• :3 - cat;

If you wish, you can invent emoticons yourself by typing certain characters (letters, numbers or symbols) on the keyboard. From the above list it is clear, for example, that using the number “3” you can depict the face of a cat, a dog (as well as, say, a rabbit) or one of the parts of a heart. And emoticons with P mean sticking out tongue. There is room for creativity.

Horizontal Japanese emoticons (kaomoji)

Above were classic emoticons made up of text symbols, which are interpreted and take on the correct shape only if you tilt your head to the left or mentally rotate such an image 90° to the right.

Japanese emoticons are more convenient in this regard; when looking at them, you do not need to tilt your head, because it is immediately clear what each of them means. Kaomoji, as you probably guessed, was first used in Japan and consisted of both standard characters found on any keyboard and the use of hieroglyphs.

Japanese term «顔文字» when translated into Latin it looks like “Kaomoji”. In fact, the phrase “kaomoji” is very close to the concept of “smile” (English smile - smile), since "kao" (顔) means "face" and "moji" (文字)- “symbol”, “letter”.

Even with a quick analysis of the meanings of these terms, it is noticeable that Europeans and residents of most countries where the Latin alphabet is common pay more attention to such an element as the mouth (smile) when expressing emotions. For the Japanese, all components of the face are important, especially the eyes. This is expressed in true (not modified) kaomoji.

Subsequently, Japanese emoticons became widespread in Southeast Asia, and today they are used throughout the world. Moreover, they can consist not only of symbols and hieroglyphs, but are often supplemented, for example, with letters and signs of the Latin or Arabic alphabet. First, let's see what do some simple horizontal text emoticons mean?:

• (^_^) or (n_n) - smiling, joyful;
• (^____^) - wide smile;
• ^-^ — happy smiley;
• (<_>) , (v_v) - this is how sadness is usually denoted;
• (o_o) , (0_0) , (o_O) - these emoticons mean varying degrees of surprise;
• (V_v) or (v_V) - unpleasantly surprised;
• *-* - amazement;
• (@_@) — surprise has reached its maximum (“you can be stunned”);
• ^_^”, *^_^* or (-_-v) - embarrassment, awkwardness;
• (?_?) , ^o^ - misunderstanding;
• (-_-#) , (-_-¤) , (>__
• 8 (>_
• (>>) , (>_>) or (<_>
• -__- or =__= - indifference;
• m (._.) m - apology;
• ($_$) - this emoticon reflects greed;
• (;_;) , Q__Q - crying;
• (T_T), (TT.TT) or (ToT) - sobbing;
• (^_~) , (^_-) - these variations of emoticons mean a wink;
• ^)(^, (-)(-), (^)...(^) - kiss;
• (^3^) or (* ^) 3 (*^^*) - love;
• (-_-;) , (-_-;)~ - sick;
• (- . -) Zzz, (-_-) Zzz or (u_u) - sleeping.

Well, now a few horizontal emoticons that reflect frequently encountered emotions, composed of more complex symbols and signs, as well as their designations:

• ٩(◕‿◕)۶ , (〃＾▽＾〃) or \(★ω★)/ - happiness;
• o(❛ᴗ❛)o , (o˘◡˘o) , (っ˘ω˘ς) - smile;
• (´♡‿♡`), (˘∀˘)/(μ‿μ) ❤ or (๑°꒵°๑)･*♡ - love;
• (◡‿◡ *), (*ﾉ∀`*), (*μ_μ) - embarrassment.

Naturally, Japanese emoticons, which use not only service symbols and punctuation marks, but also complex letters of the katakana alphabet, provide more opportunities to express not only emotions through facial expressions, but also through gestures.

For example, an emoticon has become widespread on the Internet, shrugging shoulders and throwing up hands. What does it mean? Most likely an apology with a hint of awkwardness:

This emoticon appeared thanks to the famous rapper Kanye West, who unexpectedly interrupted the presenter's speech at the Video Music Awards in 2010, and then demonstrated such a gesture, admitting the incorrectness of his behavior (the emoticon that shrugs its shoulders and spreads its arms was called “Kanye shoulders” and became a real meme):

If you are interested in exploring the complete collection of kaomoji that reflect emotions, forms of movement, states, types of animals, etc., then visit here is this resource, where they can be easily copied and pasted into the desired location.

Graphic emoticons Emoji (emoji), their codes and meanings

So, above we examined symbolic emoticons, some of which, when inserted on social networks and other places, can acquire graphic outlines, that is, appear in the form of pictures. But this does not happen everywhere and not always. Why?

Yes, because they consist of simple text icons. To emoticons were guaranteed to acquire the appearance of images after insertion, and in any place where you place them, codes must be used, specially included in the official Unicode table so that any user can quickly express their emotional state.

Of course, any emoticon can be loaded in the form of pictures created in graphic editors, but given the huge number of them and the number of users on the Internet, such a solution does not seem ideal, since it will inevitably negatively affect the bandwidth of the global network. But the use of codes in this situation is just right.

As a result, popular engines used for forums and blogs (for example, WordPress) have in their functionality the ability to insert colored emoticons, which undoubtedly adds expressiveness to messages.

The same can be said for various chats and instant messengers designed for both PCs and mobile devices (Skype, Telegram, Viber, Whatsapp).

It is graphic pictograms that are called emoji (or emoji, which is more correct from the point of view of Japanese pronunciation). Term «画像文字» (in Latin transliteration “emoji”), which, like kaomoji, is a phrase consisting of two words translated into Russian meaning “picture” (“e”) and “letter”, “symbol” (moji).

I think the Japanese name for small pictures that appear in the text to display emotions, feelings and states is most fair, since it was in Japan that symbolic images were born that do not require mentally turning them over for correct perception.

As I noted above, any code emoji smiley in the vast majority of cases, it is necessarily interpreted into a picture in all possible places where you want to insert it, including, for example, social networks VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Moreover, in different areas, the smiley may be displayed differently when inserting the same Unicode code corresponding to a specific value:

Another important point. By default, the emoji smiley will be executed in black and white or displayed as a rectangle😀 (it all depends on the platform that is used where it is inserted). You can verify this if visit encoder and try to insert HTML codes corresponding to different emoticons into the field on the right:

Similar emojis will look exactly like this in the browser. In order for them to acquire color, you need to use a special script that is installed on large popular services. By the way, in one of the latest versions of WordPress (I don’t remember which one) emoji were enabled by default, but I had to disable them due to a serious increase in . which I try to constantly monitor.

So for small businesses with limited resources, emojis are not always a boon. After disabling, when you try to insert emoji into the text of an article or comment, the emoticons will be present in black and white or in the shape of a rectangle.

But in popular social networks, the use of the appropriate HTML code by any user initiates the appearance of a full-fledged emoticon. By the way, in the same Contact there is a whole collection of emoji, sorted into categories. Copy this or that emoji you can from the Unicode table, located where the icons are distributed among sections:

Select the required image from the “Native” column and copy it to using the context menu or Ctrl+C. Then open a page of some social network, forum, chat, or even your email in a new tab and paste this code into the message you want to send using the same menu or Ctrl+V.

Now watch the video, which presents 10 emojis whose real meaning you may not even know.

Sometimes words alone are not enough to express feelings. In such cases, when communicating on social networks, we turn to emoji. Winking “emoticons” and other symbols appeared back in 1999, but they only recently won great love among users. Despite the fact that almost everyone uses them, the meanings of some pictures are not entirely clear.

In contact with

For example, two palms clasped together can be interpreted in different ways - perhaps they symbolize prayer, but it is also possible that these are two people greeting each other with the words “High Five”. How to understand the meaning of certain emojis? We bring to your attention a few tips that will help you understand the meaning of emoticons on iPhone, iPad and macOS.

Examples of the meaning of emoticons Emoji

Many users mistake this picture for a crying face. In fact, the drop is not a tear, but sweat, meaning relief after the excitement experienced.

Don't be fooled, this is not a nut at all, but a roasted sweet potato.

What appears at first glance to be a pyramid of ping pong balls is actually a "harvest festival card" symbolizing a Japanese traditional ceremony that occurs during the Tsukimi festival.

If you think it's an acorn, you're wrong. It's actually a chestnut.

This picture should not be used as a greeting card as it is nothing more than a bookmark.

This gesture means “OK” and indicates that everything is fine with you.

Raised palms do not mean an appeal to higher powers, but symbolize joy.

This “smiley” means severe irritation and a nervous state. Many users mistakenly use it to express contempt.

What looks like a black cube actually symbolizes the Muslim shrine of the Kaaba located in Mecca.

No, this girl does not have deer antlers growing on her head. They just give her a facial massage.

Often users resort to this picture when they want to express denial of something, but in fact it symbolizes the person at the information board.

This is not a dance move at all, as it may seem, but open arms.

This boy didn't hide or think. Believe it or not, he bows.

A smiley face without a mouth symbolizes silence. However, it is often used to express confusion, even fear, and is sometimes used as a "Kolobok" character.

You might think it's fire, but it's actually a name badge.

This sign is not a fancy image of a house at all, but a symbol of anger.

The picture below appeared with the release of iOS 10.2. Some people might see a glass of whiskey here, but in reality it's just a glass.

This symbol does not mean ordinary laughter, but hysterical laughter, when the laugher literally rolls on the floor.

This image can be interpreted as both a jellyfish and an umbrella, but Apple believes that this is what the oriental furin bell looks like, ringing in the wind.

Do not confuse this symbol with the panic button. It's actually a trackball.

You shouldn’t look for hidden meaning in this sign, because it’s just a hole.

It may seem that this guy is none other than the legendary Ziggy Stardust performed by British artist David Bowie. Despite the similar makeup, this is just a symbol of any singer.

How to independently find out the meaning (determine the meaning) of emoji on iPhone

Finding out the meaning of an emoji on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is very easy. Using the function Pronunciation you can “force” iOS to explain out loud what this or that picture means.

1 . On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to " Settings", select "About main» -> « Universal access» -> Speech -> Pronunciation).

2 . Write a message and insert an emoji.

3 . Place the cursor next to the Emoji emoticon whose meaning you want to find out and click on the screen until a menu with actions appears.

Click " Choose", after which the emoji will be highlighted, and then select the option " Talk” and the voice assistant will read aloud the meaning of the emoticon in Russian.

An emoticon is a set of symbols, or icon, that is a visual representation of a facial expression or body position to convey a mood, attitude, or emotion, originally used in email and text messages. The most famous is the smiling face emoji, i.e. smile - :-) .

There is no clear and reliable evidence about who invented the emoticon. Of course, you can point to ancient excavations, finds of various inscriptions on rocks, etc., but these will only be guesses from each of us.

Of course, to say for sure that the emoticon is a modern invention is a little wrong. The use of emoticons can be traced back to the 19th century. Examples of their use can be found in a copy of the American magazine "Puck" from 1881, see example:

Yes, there are a lot of such examples in history, but it is generally accepted that a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, Scott Fahlman, was responsible for the first digital type of emoticon. He suggested distinguishing serious messages from frivolous ones by using emoticons :-) and :-(. This was all the way back on September 19, 1982. This is especially useful when the sentiment of your message can be misinterpreted.

YES, BUT YOU NEVER ARRIVE ON TIME, ANYWAY.

YES, BUT YOU NEVER ARRIVE ON TIME, ANYWAY. ;-)

However, emoticons did not become so popular, but revealed their potential 14 years later, thanks to a Frenchman who lived in London - Nicolas Laufrani. The idea arose even earlier, from Nicolas’s father, Franklin Laufrani. It was he who, as a journalist for the French newspaper France Soir, published an article on January 1, 1972, under the heading “Take time to smile!”, where he used emoticons to highlight his article. Later he patented it as a trademark and created the production of some products using the smiley. Then a company was created under the brand name Smiley, where father Franklin Loufrani became president, and son Nicolas Loufrani became general director.

It was Nicolas who noticed the popularity of ASCII emoticons, which were widely used on mobile phones, and began developing directly animated emoticons that would correspond to ASCII emoticons consisting of simple characters, i.e. what we now use and are accustomed to calling - smiley. He created a catalog of emoticons, which he divided into categories “Emotions”, “Holidays”, “Food”, etc. And in 1997, this catalog was registered with the US Copyright Office.

Around the same time in Japan, Shigetaka Kurita began designing emoticons for I-mode. But unfortunately, the widespread use of this project never happened. Maybe because in 2001, Laufrani's creations were licensed by Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and other mobile phone manufacturers, who later began offering them to their users. After that, the world was simply overwhelmed with various interpretations of emoticons and emoticons.

The following variations with smaliks and emoticons became the appearance stickers in 2011. They were created by the leading Internet company from Korea - Naver. The company has developed a messaging platform called - Line. A similar messaging application like WhatsApp. LINE was developed in the months following the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Initially, LIne was created to find friends and relatives during and after natural disasters and in the first year, the number of users grew to 50 million. Afterwards, with the publication of games and stickers, there were already more than 400 million, which later became one one of the most popular apps in Japan, particularly among teenagers.

Emoticons, emoticons and stickers today, after more than 30 years, they have definitely begun to occupy a place in people’s everyday conversations and correspondence. According to research conducted in the United States, it was found that 74 percent of people in the United States regularly use stickers and emoticons in their online communications, sending an average of 96 emoticons or stickers per day. The reason for this explosion in use Emoji is that the creative characters developed by various companies help to express our feelings, help to add humor, sadness, happiness, etc.

The emoticons in the tables will be gradually replenished, so go to the site and look for the meaning of the desired emoticons.

The article will talk about what a smiley means and what they are. It is worth noting that emoticons have long entered our lives and are well established in it, because they, like nothing else, can convey a person’s emotions and feelings.

There are people who regularly communicate using emoticons, because with the development of progress there are already animated emoticons that can wave, wink, jump and change colors.

There are several alphabets of emoticons, the most common being standard And Japanese. Japanese emoticons differ in that they pay more attention to the eyes, while standard emoticons pay more attention to the mouth.

The history of emoticons

Today, almost no private letter on the Internet is complete without emoticons. Some people get offended if a friend doesn't put a colon and a right parenthesis at the end of a letter. Of course, this is stupid, but emoticons are already so closely connected with our lives.

Modern children may think that emoticons have always existed, but in fact, for the first time, a smiley was drawn Harvey Bell- an artist by training. In the early sixties, America witnessed a war between insurers. The employees were afraid of getting laid off and, in order to cheer themselves and each other up, they distracted themselves and tried to communicate politely and affably with the remaining clients.

One insurance company, in order to stay afloat, decided to hold a promotion for which they needed an interesting drawing. At the end of 1963, they approached Harvey with this request. He drew the first smiley :-) , which took him ten minutes to design. For the drawing he was paid mere pennies: $43. Then he did not yet know that his simple drawing would become so popular, so he did not register any rights to it. The first Harvey emojis were pinned and given out to customers. People liked these sweet smiles so much that the company contacted the artist again and ordered ten thousand more emoticons.

Another story that played an important role in the development of the emoticon is the seventies, when brothers from Spain developed the slogan " Happy day!" Since that time, smileys began to be depicted on clothes. In 1971, a FrenchmanFranklin Loufraney The smiley trademark was registered in eighty countries.

And the first electronic emoticons appeared in the sixties of the last century. Then emoticons were used in encoding Unicode. In 1982, Microsoft decided to create emoticons, thanks to which you can show emotions.

What do emoticons mean? decoding

Emoticons can convey almost every human emotion, from cheerful laughter to tears. Below is a table indicating what this or that smiley means.

	Designation	Other designations	Decoding
			This emoji is depicted in the shape of a person's face and means a smile.
			Wild laughter
			Tenderness
			Wink
			Seriousness
			Chagrin
			Shock: in the first case pleasant, in the second not
			Laughter to tears
		:-P,=P,:b, :-b, :p	Show tongue
			Disgust

3 - this emoticon means a cute cat face or “bow lips” (cuteness). Options-:3:=3:-3

These are the most common emoticons, the designation of which many people know.

Smiley and grief emoticon

The smile and grief emoji, presented first in the table, have often changed and morphed over time. When people began to use emoticons in communication, they consisted of eyes, nose and mouth. Then the nose disappeared somewhere. And the eyes began to be drawn not with dashes, but simply with dots. Many people are familiar with when a smiley had only one eye - .) , and then he disappeared, to show a smile or sadness, people only put parentheses. To show joy or sadness, many parentheses are placed. If we are talking about strong disappointment, then it can be shown like this - ((( or so - :WITH.

What do emoticons mean on VKontakte?

On a social network VK There are two types of emoticons, the standard ones discussed above, and the voluminous ones offered by the service itself. For three years now, VKontakte users have been able to use emoticons, since only in August 2012 such an opportunity was added for communication in personal correspondence. Until this time, Vkontakte users had to independently create symbols of emotions from punctuation marks. But the developers have made their task easier: the user can open a menu of emoticons and select the one that describes his condition.

Initially, about thirty emoticons appeared on the network, but after a while another hundred were added, which depicted not only emotions, but also the actions of people, as well as food and animals. But due to the wide variety of emoticons, people’s communication is not always clear. Not all people understand the meaning of a particular smiley, or understand it differently. To prevent such situations from arising with you, you need to write a few words in addition to the smiley so that the interlocutor understands you.

Popular VKonakt emoticons the following can be mentioned:

• :ok - everything is fine;
• -:o - fear;
• -3(- sadness;
• -8) - love;
• -:] - stupid smile.

There are also hidden emoticons in VK that can be sent to users by pressing a few keys. But the disadvantage of such emoticons is that they are black and therefore repel many users.

The most common commands include the following:

• ALT+ 1 - white emoticon indicating a smile ☺
• ALT+2 - black smile: ☻
• ALT+3 - heart of love:
• ALT+ 11 - male symbol: ♂
• ALT+12 - female symbol: ♀
• ALT+13 - melody:♪
• ALT+ 15 - sun: ☼

For the symbol to appear in the message you need to:

1. Hold down the “Alt” key on your keyboard
2. Dial digital combination
3. Release the Alt key

What does emoticon 3 mean?

The table above showed this emoticon and said that it means tenderness. But it’s worth taking a closer look at its decoding, since not many people understand it. This symbol is associated with animals such as dogs and cats. And indeed, if you look closely, it looks like the face of an animal. In another way, this smiley stands for “ cute"- this is exactly how you can characterize any cute animal.

This emoticon should not be confused with <3 , which means heart.

Many people and smiley :3 considered a kiss, but they are mistaken because it does not mean exactly a kiss, namely cuteness.

There was a period of time when this emoticon was read from a mathematical point of view, and it meant nothing more than divide by 3. But this is a comic version that did not take root among Internet users for a long time.

Action emoticons

As mentioned above, emoticons can replace a person’s written speech and entire expressions. After all, their collection is constantly being replenished, and soon people will be able to communicate only with emoticons. Below are several emoticons that represent human actions.

	Smiley designation	Decoding
		Laugh loudly
		Listen to music on headphones
		Wave your hand
	(>^_^)(^_^<)	Hug
		Go crazy

As we can see from the table, you can even talk about your actions and desires with emoticons. Some social networks have emoticons that mean that a person is reading a book, relaxing, eating or playing ball.

We looked in detail at what emoticons mean and how they can be used to express actions and emotions. In a few years they may replace written language. After all, it is much easier for people to put an emoticon than to write for a long time and explain to the person what he is doing or what emotion he is currently showing.

Video with decoding of emoticons