English Internet Slang

In any language of the world there is Internet slang. English is no exception. "How ru" and "OMG" write on the forums, falling asleep to an inexperienced user with incomprehensible sets of letters like "btw" . Often it is really difficult to understand what the potential interlocutor has in mind and what promise is hidden behind all these countless abbreviations. We study together the realities of English Internet slang.

Twitter study

Slang (eng. Slang ) is unstable, variable and short-lived. In order for a new expression or a word (even slang) to be entered in dictionaries, it must exist in the language of at least five years, as Fiona McFirson, the senior editor of the Oxford dictionary, says! Very many slang words do not withstand this term, which, however, does not affect the constant growth of their number. Jacob Einstein, a professor at a university in Atlanta, conducted a curious study with his colleagues: to identify the birthplace of a slang word, they analyzed more than 30 million tweets (Twitter posts) sent to the United States from December 2009 to May 2011 . The results really get interesting: for example, the word «bruh» (another slang version of «brother», still often abbreviated as «bro»), before it gained popularity in California, originally appeared in several South-Sun intramural cities, and residents of Cleveland were the first to use in their online correspondence «ctfu» ( «cracking the fuck up»).

How to nostalgic and laugh on the Internet in English

Leafing through the instagram tape on a cold winter evening (though almost at any other time, too), you will surely stumble upon a photo from someone’s long-awaited vacation, full of nostalgia for a great time, and with a laconic postscript (often, in the form of a hashtag) “tbt” . This mysterious abbreviation stands for “Throwback Thursday” and is used when it comes to something that is already in the past, causing you to have warm emotions and a sense of nostalgia. A curious fact: we owe the origin of this slang word to one of the collectors of sneakers, who in 2006 posted a photo of a pair of shoes “from the past” ( “throwback” is exactly translated) with an explanation that he wants to make a pause while wearing modern models, but also made a reference to the "throwback jerseys" (sports uniform of the past), which at one time the team wore.

The abbreviation OMG ( Oh My God!, OMG! ), Already known to many, appeared in the world not because of some schoolboy who just wanted to save time not to write the whole sentence, but to Lord John Fisher, who wrote it in his letter to Winston Churchill in September 1917: "I hear that a new order is OMG (Oh! My! God!)" . Fisher, of course, did not even think of introducing the word he had invented into wide use (he simply often shortened phrases), but, nevertheless, it stuck.



“GG” , which stands for “good game” or “great game” (“great game”), came to us from the slang of early gamers who started playing the first online games in 1994.
Also, in our time, there is hardly a person who has never come across a short and capacious “LOL” on the Internet. The history of the origin of “Lola” is extremely unpretentious: before this abbreviation appeared, people designated the tested positive emotions as “* smile *” , and in 1989 one of the online editions suggested using “LOL” as a short version of “laughing out loudly” (the notorious "I can not rzhu" in the modern translation).

ITOY - I'm thinking of you

The origin of “IMHO” and “TBH” is still not entirely clear - the first one stands for “In my humble opinion” (“in my opinion”) and is often used to express one’s own point of view, while the second one means “To be honest” (“honestly saying "). There are still quite a few slang expressions with a not very clear history of appearance (most likely, they were simply invented by Internet users to reduce the time it takes to write the entire phrase): among them is “ITOY” ( “I'm thinking of you ” , “ I think about you ” ), and “ AMA ” ( “ Ask me anything ” , “ Ask me about anything ” ), and “ STS ” ( “ Smirk to self ” , is often used when you need to react to what something funny is not enough for “LOL” ), and also “FOMO ” ( “Fear of missing out” , roughly speaking, the syndrome of let-out gain - when you are afraid that, having missed, for example, to Something like a friend's party, miss something very important) and IRL ( “In real life” “in real / real life”).



In principle, the appearance of slang in any language is quite explicable: this is as important a part of its evolution as the creation of new terms or other specific words. Changing and constantly replenishing, as well as “cleansing” from some words and expressions that have already been explicitly released from daily consumption, slang reflects the variability of modern society: its ever-changing interests, problems, worldview and needs. Language - whether it is English or any other - is difficult to imagine without the slang component, despite the frequent negative attitude of linguists or philologists towards it. Here the rule of the golden mean works fine: your TTYS will look quite organic on the network, but in lively speech it is better to refrain from the constant use of slang.

Snail mail, IYKWIM, Gratz and something else

In conclusion, we selected for you the most interesting examples of English Internet slang:

BTW - by the way ("by the way");
DND - do not disturb;
F9 - fine (“excellent”);
FOAD - fuck off and die ("fuck off and die");
FYI - for your information;
Gratz - congratulations;
HAND - have a nice day;
ILY - I love you ("I love you");
IYKWIM - if you know what I mean ("if you know what I mean");
L8r - later ("later");
LTNS - long time no see (“not seen for a long time”);
MYOB - mind your own business ("do not go into your own business");
NP - no problem ("no problem");
Rehi - hello again ("and hello again");
Sk8 - skate (skateboarding);
Snail mail - normal usual mail (it means plain, paper mail: considering that emails arrive much faster, ordinary mail is called snail, comparing the speed of email delivery with a snail);
TTYS - talk to you soon;
WTH - what the hell ("what the devil");
YOLO - you only live once (“you live only once”).

Learn English at Puzzle English .