Emoticon

An emoticon is a textual expression representing the face of a writer's mood or facial expression. For example, :), :(, and :D. They are often used to alert a responder to the tenor or temper of a statement, and can change and improve interpretation of plain text. The word is a portmanteau of the English words emotion (or emote) and icon. In web forums, instant messengers and online games, text emoticons are often automatically replaced with small corresponding images, which came to be called emoticons as well. The use of emoticons can be traced back to the nineteenth century and were commonly used in casual/humorous writing.[citation needed] Digital forms of emoticons on the Internet were included in a proposal by Scott Fahlman in a message on 19 September 1982.