LOL

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See also: lol, Lol, LoL, and -lol

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

Acronyms. Laugh Out Loud abbreviation apparently coined by Canadian Wayne Pearson in the early-to-mid 1980s[1][2] and first attested in 1989.[1][3]

Pronunciation

Interjection

LOL

  1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Laughing (or laugh) out loud.
  2. (Internet slang, text messaging) Lots of laughs. (occasionally used)
  3. (Internet slang, text messaging, by dilution) Indicates light-heartedness or amusement, or that the accompanying statement is not intended as serious.
  4. (letter-writing, dated) Lots of love.
    • 2002 November 29, Me Here, “Latest Rugby Poll.”, in nz.general (Usenet):
      SHEESH !!!! ¶ LOL (Laugh out loud) &&&& ¶ LOL (Lots of love, coz I'm a sharing caring kinda gal) ¶ Nikki
    • 2007, Adam Gopnik, Through the Children's Gate, →ISBN:
      Explaining how much I hated being away from him for another weekend, how I had to do it to pay for his school, for our life. Heartfelt, heart-full, I signed it "LOL, Dad.". Then a pause. And I see appearing on my screen these words. "Dad: what exactly do you think LOL means?" "Lots of Love, obviously," I replied.
    • 2010, Keturah Wasler, Box of Chocolates: Piece from My Heart, →ISBN, page 20:
      The answer is in Job 40:7 to the end of the chapter, and 2 tim 2:11 thru 2:21. LOL, Dad Miscommunication: I was thinking he was laughing he didn't tell that was not true. An on-looker said he may mean lots of love. I asked and he didn't answer but he hugged me the next time he saw me for two seconds. Progress not perfection.
    • 2011, Rhonda K. Kindig, Found in Translation, →ISBN, page 105:
      John 21:15, 16,17 Back in the fifties, when I used to write childish letters in long-hand to my grandmothers, I would delight in closing with LOL, by which I intended the sentiment "Lots of Love"! This was followed by "XOXOXOXO", which, of course, was hugs and kisses.
    • 2014 May 28, Stuart Heritage, “25 years of LOL – the good and bad bits”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      One of the most famous examples of this misunderstanding came to prominence three years ago, thanks to a screengrab of this text message sent by a mother to her son: "Your great aunt just passed away. LOL".

Usage notes

Typically, lowercase "lol" is used for the diluted sense of the word (to indicate light-heartedness), while uppercase "LOL" is used more literally. Sentence case Lol is sometimes seen on social media platforms which automatically capitalize the first word of any sentence, but is otherwise uncommon.

Especially the lowercase lol is sometimes reduplicated, in such a manner as "lololol", "lolololol", and so on (typically ending with an l) for further emphasis on the laughter.

Yet, as with other expressions of emotion, the intensified forms can also be used to express insincere or exaggerated laughter:

A: Why do we call it School Street when the school is actually on Main Street?
B: LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!

Translations

Verb

LOL (third-person singular simple present LOLs, present participle LOLing, simple past and past participle LOLed or LOLd or LOL'd)

  1. (Internet slang, text messaging) To laugh out loud.

Noun

LOL (plural LOLs)

  1. (US, Commonwealth, Ireland) Loyal Orange Lodge, a prefix given to all branches of the Loyal Orange Order. For example, LOL 1 is Portadown branch.
  2. (informal, sometimes derogatory) Little old lady.
    LOL in NAD [dated emergency department slang for "little old lady in no apparent distress"]
    • 2001 May 13, Sheilendr Khipple, “Word for Word/Hospital Lingo; What's a Bed Plug? An L.O.L. in N.A.D.”, in New York Times‎[2]:
      L.O.L.: little old lady. (Oddly, there is no male equivalent.) / N.A.D.: no apparent distress. The classic description of a patient in a state of well-being: L.O.L. in N.A.D.
    • 2018, Jeanne Marie Laskas, To Obama, With love, joy, hate and despair, →ISBN, page 29:
      Then he started with his LOLs. The Little Old Ladies who needed help with daily chores.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gretchen McCulloch (2019) “Internet People”, in Because Internet, trade paperback, third printing edition, New York: Riverhead Books, published 2020, →ISBN, page 75: “The most commonly accepted account of the creation of "lol" comes from a man in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, named Wayne Pearson, who recalls coining it in a chatroom in the 1980s: […] The first known citation for LOL appears in a list […] from May 1989, […]”
  2. ^ Wayne Pearson (2024 November 24) “The origin of LOL”, in University of Calgary Department of Computer Science: “LOL was first coined on a BBS called Viewline in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in the early-to-mid-80s. […] I found myself truly laughing out loud, echoing off the walls of my kitchen. That's when "LOL" was first used.”
  3. ^ “LOL, int.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022.
  • [3] UK house of commons discussing a Loyal Orange Lodge.

Anagrams

Danish

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

Etymology

Borrowed from English LOL.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lɔlˀ/, [ˈlʌlˀ]

Interjection

LOL

  1. (Internet slang, text messaging) LOL (expression of laughter)

Alternative forms

References

Portuguese

Interjection

LOL

  1. (Internet slang, text messaging) LOL

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:LOL.

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