lol

[hjburton]

i often see lol written excuse my ignorance what does it mean

[Eve]

Lots of laughs :)

[bednobs]

laugh out loud - the internet equivalent of writing ha ha

[ummmm]

here you go...for all the other ones

http://netforbeginners.about.com/cs/netiquette 101/a/abbreviations.htm

[Mrs Smalman]

Laugh out Loud...although some people use it for Lots of Love

[Quizmonster]

Since many people write such things as "LOL at Fred's reply!"...it usually means 'laughing out loud' rather than 'laugh out loud'. The latter would be an instruction to the reader whereas the former means that the writer is doing the laughing.
As such, it is almost invariably untrue. Although the writer may well have laughed out loud when he/she first saw Fred's reply, it is highly unlikely that he/she is doing so now.
Do us all a favour, Hj...never, ever use the wretched acronym! Cheers

[hjburton]

thankyou everyone merry christmas

[jno]

in that case, QM, might it not mean 'laughed out loud'? The beauty of such abbreviations is that they can be flexible as to tenses, numbers etc, thus allowing for a broader range of use.

[Quizmonster]

So why not 'ILOL', J? But, if one were to do that, presumably 'YSLOL' - which looks Welsh! - would need to be used for 'You should laugh out loud' in the 'instruction' version.
The real point is that, as presently employed, the blessed thing is a nonsense. Instead of writing, "LOL at Fred", why not write, "Funny, Fred", which uses the same number of keystrokes and is infinitely clearer? Anyone who doesn't think Fred was funny is free not to laugh.

Anyway, life really is too short to bother with this any further!

[jno]

I politely disagree, QM (hmmm... now why do I write QM?). I don't know if there's any standard work on the use and meaning of abbreviation, but I suspect the ambiguity is at least a part of the attraction. lol can be 'I am laughing', 'we are laughing', 'I laughed' - or 'I didn't actually laugh but I acknowledge that you made a joke and would like to put on record my appreciation of your efforts'. After all, in cyberspace it is difficult to replicate the tone of voice which tells people that something you have said orally is a joke; so the use of :)s and lols is an outpost of phatic communion, a relative of the grunts, nudges, winks, grins, eye-rolling etc that eases social discourse in the real world. I don't think this is to be despised; it's simple to do and it helps to keep tempers even.

Sorry, hjburton, this is probably more than you really were hoping to hear.

[Panic Button]

And there's me thinking people keep sending me loads of love

[BlueKraut]

I agree with 'laugh out loud'. In the interests of brevity you don't use ilol for "I laugh out loud".

I like the other, similar abbreviation rofl for "rolling on the floor laughing"

[emi-elektrik]

laugh out loud!!!!!

[emi-elektrik]

Maybe this will help.

LOL=Laugh out loud [Although most people arent laughing at all, its the most overused word ever, and people use it becase they have nothing better to say]
ASL=Age, Sex, Location [for sex, never put yes please. stick to M or F (male or female btw lol)]
BTW= By the way
BRB=Be right back
G2G=Got to go
OMG=Oh my god
OMFG=Oh my f**king god
LMAO=Laughing my ass off
LMFAO=Laughing my f**king ass off [Or as i like to think, laughing my fat ass off. its just finner that way..hehe]
ROTFL=rolling on the floor laughing
ROTFLMAO=Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off [A combination of ROTFL and LMAO. Pointless.]
WUU2=What you up to?
WUBU2=What you been up to?
BF=Boyfriend
GF=Girlfriend
NM=Nothing much
DM=Doesn't matter
WTF=What the f**k?

[emi-elektrik]

btw, QM has p***ed me off now lolz. see im using lolz, because i say lolz not lol because i can. im not even laughing. im just showing that im not angry. my statement appeared angry and to balance it out i put lol.
lol means chuff ll nowadays its just a word used all the time for no reason. i dont get why your all arguing about it.
also, how old are all of you?? im going to guess that im the youngest person on this website? im 15.
Alot of the people on here seem to talk about swearing and the commonly used instant messanger abbreiviations as though they are evil and feared. Ahem, pardon me as i go into essay mode...


Swearing is now a common thing, to me its just accepted vocabulary. Im not common, and im not some council house chav either before you jump to conclusions about me. My parents tell me that swearing is stupid and makes me look common, and they ensure i am well aware of the offense it may cause somebody of the older generation, but times are changing. Swearing is used all the time, its not "awful" anymore. The word f**k is about as normal as the word mirror, or telephone. They are all commonly used words. get over them! They are words! If I told somebody in my class to p**s off, it would upset them as much as it would if i told them to get lost, its just a WORD!!!! It doesnt run around and stab people or anything!
Now, abbrieviations. We are humans, we are lazy. In a desperate bid to pretend im slightly less common than my friends and surrounding citizens, i refrain from talking in text speech. I like vowels! but on MSN (sorry i abbrieviated it!! i mean on Microsoft Service Network, or Yahoo messenger or whatever, nobody can be bothered to type everything, infact the majority of the time we dont even read what someones put we just put lol ok. They arent to be feared, they are just like apostrophies making Do Not into Don't. its purely for ease.

thnk u

[ermm...]

lol

[hjburton]

i cannot believe my simple question has generated such a lot of correspodence over two months!! anyway thanks everyone,I certainly know lots more than I asked for!!