ChatterBank1 min ago
LOL
13 Answers
Sorry not sure which category to ask this ......... in emails etc when someone puts lol, apart from
'lots of love' what else does it mean?
'lots of love' what else does it mean?
Answers
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Some say, as Boo does, "Laugh out loud." That is, it's an instruction to the reader. Others say, "Laughing out loud." That is, it is an indication of what the writer is supposedly doing him/herself.
In either case, it's nonsense! You can't TELL people to laugh out loud and - whilst the writer may well have laughed out loud...ie in the past...when he/she first heard the funny thing, how likely is it that they are STILL doing so when they come to write about it?
Best avoided, really, Spreeny.
In either case, it's nonsense! You can't TELL people to laugh out loud and - whilst the writer may well have laughed out loud...ie in the past...when he/she first heard the funny thing, how likely is it that they are STILL doing so when they come to write about it?
Best avoided, really, Spreeny.
QM, what it essentially means is 'I found that funny' - so in written communication it's the equivalent of laughing in real life, of appreciating a joke.
But people also seem to use it of their own statemetns to imply something like 'tongue in cheek' or 'don't take this too seriously'. I think that's very valuable. It can be difficult to explain in print, especially electronically, that you're joking, especially given the British taste for 'irony', meaning you say something outrageous in the expectation that people will realise you don't - can't - possibly mean it. Other readers, perhaps not British, do indeed misunderstand and take it seriously, and so blood feuds are born. So lol can be a very useful signifier, the way a laugh or a smile would be in a face-to-face conversation.
But people also seem to use it of their own statemetns to imply something like 'tongue in cheek' or 'don't take this too seriously'. I think that's very valuable. It can be difficult to explain in print, especially electronically, that you're joking, especially given the British taste for 'irony', meaning you say something outrageous in the expectation that people will realise you don't - can't - possibly mean it. Other readers, perhaps not British, do indeed misunderstand and take it seriously, and so blood feuds are born. So lol can be a very useful signifier, the way a laugh or a smile would be in a face-to-face conversation.
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I know perfectly well what it MEANS, J, and I fully realise I haven't a hope in hell of ever altering it, it's just that I dislike it because it is linguistically absurd. Why, for example, did whoever 'invented' it not make it ILOL for "I laughed out loud/I'm laughing out loud (and I expect it'll have the same effect on you, the reader)"?
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