Is my math wrong? Should this be 30 years? 1982 to 2012

ಠ_ಠ

:-/

@1 Yay math!

That's thirty years ago, or I've been drinking illegally for almost a decade.

In a 1969 interview the author Vladimir Nabokov responded to a question from the New York Times regarding where he saw himself in the pantheon of modern literary writers with the following:

"I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile–some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question."

Not an invention, but an imagination.

Can we bring back Mudede's emoticon set?

o_O

@7: Sweeney, you just made me day.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

:p

6 - that's cool to know, thanks

That's not an etymology, just the first use of the concept.

The word "emoticon" wasn't coined until the late 90s, by some douchebag geek-bandwagon gimmicky author who published a book of them. Large type, one per page. Remember when books were used as excuses for stupid art?

Before that, they were just called "smileys". But every techno-yuppie in the 90s had to give everything a stupid name, even if it already had one.

@ 13. It's hairsplitting, but I meant this etymology to be of "the emoticon" (as a linguistic form), not not "emoticon" (as a word).

Crap. "Not of," not "not not."

I can't do anything right today.

@9 Wait, where do you find this Mudede emoticon set? It would make my day too. It was truly hilarious.

@9: My pleasure. I think about them every couple of months and cackle.

@16: This'n here. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…