Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Late 20th century ·1982
Emoticon
emotion icon
- Meaning
- A text-based facial expression, e.g. :-) or :-(
- Source words
- emotion + icon
- Coined by
- Scott Fahlman (CMU)
- Year
- 1982
Background
Fahlman proposed :-) and :-( on a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board to distinguish jokes from serious posts. The word "emoticon" caught up in the early 1990s; "emoji" (Japanese, unrelated etymology) later displaced it.
Late 20th century
Marketing, media, and the early internet. Infomercial, emoticon, workaholic — the coinages name phenomena of mass media and white-collar life. Several predate the decades they're associated with.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.