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Lol, "alt.religion.emacs" ?

• DonHopkins 6y ago
  I know somebody who named their dog Emacs.
• swyx 6y ago
  are they wrong?
• ColinWright 6y ago
  I'm old, and I'm finding language drift to be something that I regularly see, and frequently to be baffling. This is an example. To me, "lol" means "laugh out loud". So I ask, and it's a genuine question, did "alt.religion.emacs" really, honestly, make you "laugh out loud"? It may have done, but I'm interested to know. The follow-up is this. If it did make you "laugh out loud", what is it that you found funny? If you didn't "laugh out loud", what do you actually mean by "lol"? I'm interested in language, its uses, and how it's changing, and this is one case where I'm definitely in doubt as to the intended meaning of the comment. Thanks.
  • skykooler 6y ago
    Meaning has drifted over time, and in present usage "lol" usually means something more like "heh" - an expression of mild amusement.
  • raldi 6y ago
    "lol" has morphed into an onomatopoeia, sometimes expressed out loud as an interjection in the same way that "heh" or "ha" might, but with a touch of "I found that droll".
• gerikson 6y ago
  Usenet, man. You kinda had to be there.