LOL
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Apparently coined by Canadian Wayne Pearson in the early-to-mid 1980s[1][2] and first attested in 1989.[1][3]
Pronunciation
Interjection
LOL
- (Internet slang, text messaging) Laughing (or laugh) out loud.
- (Internet slang, text messaging) Lots of laughs. (occasionally used)
- (Internet slang, text messaging, by dilution) Indicates light-heartedness or amusement, or that the accompanying statement is not intended as serious.
- (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.
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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.
Especially the lowercase lol is sometimes reduplicated, in such a manner as "lololol", "lolololol", etc. for further emphasis on the laughter.
Translations
expression of laughter
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Verb
LOL (third-person singular simple present LOLs, present participle LOLing, simple past and past participle LOLed or LOLd or LOL'd)
- (Internet slang, text messaging) To laugh out loud.
Noun
LOL (plural LOLs)
- (US, British commonwealth, Ireland) Loyal Orange Lodge, a prefix given to all branches of the Loyal Orange Order. For example, LOL 1 is Portadown branch.
- (informal, sometimes derogatory) Little old lady.
- 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.
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References
- 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, […] ”
- Wayne Pearson (c. 2003), “The origin of LOL”, in University of Calgary Department of Computer Science, retrieved 2022-12-30: “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.”
- “LOL, int.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.
Danish
Portuguese
Quotations
For quotations using this term, see Citations:LOL.
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