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Posted: 11/5/2009 6:57:10 PM | “Since my dad died lol i hav been to the garage lol every week lol and bought flowers lol for his grave lol”
When they wrote the old TV series Porridge they had to find an alternative for the ‘f’ word as it peppered real prison dialogue so much it would have been too offensive to broadcast at the time – so ‘naff’ was invented – and has since entered common usage.
Similarly with ‘Only Fools and Horses’ a new word was needed and ‘plonker’ was conjured up – that too is in common use.
I now hear people using ‘LOL’ in conversation – is it now part of the language?
Is the acronym so overused on this site it has become meaningless? And if it is has is it become a sort of background noise? Or do people really Laugh Out Loud every third word of a sentence at some deeply unfunny stuff? | |
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Posted: 11/5/2009 7:33:34 PM | Lol ?
mite be someone with Lots Of Love ( is a dating site ) Lol
mite be doing Lots Of Laughing ( is a lot of jokers on here ) Lol | |
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Posted: 11/5/2009 8:53:23 PM | | It's used too much. It irks me when I try to talk to someone and all I get for a response is "lol". At the end of the occasional sentence, sure, even I use it once in a while. | |
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Posted: 11/5/2009 9:16:28 PM | | It's text speak, I have never heard anyone actually say it - that would be weird and a lie as it means Laugh Out Loud | |
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Posted: 11/5/2009 9:44:03 PM |
When they wrote the old TV series Porridge they had to find an alternative for the ‘f’ word [...] so ‘naff’ was invented – and has since entered common usage.
Similarly with ‘Only Fools and Horses’ a new word was needed and ‘plonker’ was conjured up – that too is in common use.
Learn something new every day!
"Naff" has been around since the 19th century, meaning poor taste or kitsch - you know, those houses and gardens covered in Christmas lights, or garden gnomes - they're all naff, I never really realised Porridge used it as a euphemistic verb!
And "plonker" is, and has been since about WW1, the male version of "twat" - a euphemism for the penis, which language broadcast on TV is one of the reasons I never really enjoyed OFaH.
But both of those new uses show that language, especially English, evolves, changes, grows, which I think is one of the amazing things of life.
"Lol" has never entered my spoken vocabulary - the first time I heard it said, one of my sons told me it was someone "old trying to be trendy" - although it does have its use in SMS and on MSN - but pernickety me must confess to only using when I really do laugh out loud.
Perhaps when a new word arises it takes some time to establish its true meaning and usage, and at the moment people are "trying it out" to see where it fits in to their vocabulary? | |
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Posted: 11/5/2009 11:12:36 PM | | I used lol, only when something has said something that makes me laugh and I'm conveying the fact I'm laughing back in a message. Never use the Ha Ha because I never Ha Ha although I do laught out loud. | |
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Posted: 11/5/2009 11:22:48 PM |
Is the acronym so overused on this site it has become meaningless?
It seems to also be a word that is used as a delaying tactic when people are talking to many others at the same time.
I.e "Hows your day going, did you do anything interesting?"
(Reply) LOL
************long pause***********
(Reply again) Yes.
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Posted: 11/5/2009 11:34:06 PM | Yeah i use it quite a lot, but then if you were talking to me in the scary "real world" you would see that im a cheery little sort who laughs a lot. | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 12:28:25 AM | | I think it a sign of someone who spends a vast amount of time on MSN chatting to multiple people so that they dont really think about what they are typing. | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 12:37:27 AM | Do people really use 'lol' in speech?
I know they sometimes giggle at the end of a sentence, but saying 'lol' doesn't sound right, somehow.
Do they say "el oh el" or "lol" , which rhymes with "sol"? | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 1:38:30 AM | Remember back in the stone age when people used to write to each other? You know, with pens and sheets of that thin stuff made out of wood? Some people used to write "ha ha" at the end of sentences. I don't think I ever read an amusing sentence that had "ha ha" on the end of it.
Then the internet came along and ha ha got abbreviated to : )
Then came chat rooms and SMS and people started lolling and roffling all over the place. I actually know someone who says "rofl" out loud. I think it's meant to be sarcastic because she's usually standing up and frowning when she says it. Or maybe she's an idiot, who can say?
So anyway, pre-internet there were people who didn't know how to write amusingly so they gave you a little "ha ha" here and there to let you know they were trying to be funny. "Lol" and all the rest of that hateful 'txtspk' is just the same thing in a different medium: It's something said by people who feel the need to have some more input when they've run out of meaningful things to say. | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 1:40:45 AM |
"Lol" has never entered my spoken vocabulary - the first time I heard it said, one of my sons told me it was someone "old trying to be trendy" - although it does have its use in SMS and on MSN - but pernickety me must confess to only using when I really do laugh out loud.
I admit to saying it once in the pub after more than a few****ails someone made a funny remark and instead of just laughing I said "lol!" everyone at the table looked at me s if to say "weird girl". I figured I was spending too much time on the net at this point. | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 1:44:07 AM |
Face it OP its a generation thing ............and the gap is getting wider and wider by the day !!
What is an Ipod anyway.........is it a Sony Walkman ???
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Posted: 11/6/2009 2:27:16 AM | | Yeah I had a girlfriend whose name was Gladys Minge, a big girl all of 225lbs she worked as an erotic dancer down at Mario’s fish bar ………oh hang on this is the wrong thread LOL! | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 2:27:27 AM | Ok, folks this where I get my 'boring' hat on. Some say I never remove it...even in bed!!
Lol, rofl, imho, and other such acronyms were first used at Berkeley University, by Unix programmers, the reason was to optimise storage and data transmission speed, which was limited and very expensive in the early 70's. It was used by researchers and students and thus moved into common usage from the various campuses that were connected to the network.
Plonker is a corruption of plonk, from First World War soldier in France, whos called Vin Blanc...plonk. A plonker was a person who regularly indulged in the delights of the local wine.
Naff was used in the 19th century in London Markets and Theater, apparently a reversal of fan as used by ladies for cooling.
Faff, from 16th century word faffle, meaning a sudden gust of wind and suggesting the disruption and chaos caused by it.
Ps for an interesting bit of history google the Berkeley family of Gloucestershire. | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 2:55:45 AM | | i use it quite alot when im stuck for words and writing shite..i just put lol after every sentence cos i cant think of feck all else to say... | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 3:37:53 AM | I think part of the problem with text and Messages, the typed word, is misunderstanding,
I rarely use the 'word' "Lol" but it can be useful to let people know that what you just said was a joke.
I have wished I had used it many times!
People often misinterpret texts in my experience.
My sons often say "lol" out loud as they think it's hilarious!
If a joke is funny, you shouldn't need instructions at the end,
but sometimes it's a safety device.
LOL
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Posted: 11/6/2009 3:43:48 AM |
I think part of the problem with text and Messages, the typed word, is misunderstanding,
I rarely use the 'word' "Lol" but it can be useful to let people know that what you just said was a joke.
I sort of get that, but if someone says "I don't like your last post you are a £$&£$% moron and a total *$%^&", and I'm going to slit your ^%$$!&* throat! LOL"... there was kind of enough information there to know what it was really about. And really, if someone takes seriously something that was meant as a joke, as long as they don't have your home address and access to weapons of mass destruction, do you really care? | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 3:47:27 AM | | Like it or not I have to keep ahead of these anacronyms if i've any chance of understanding what the hell the younger members of my family are on about....I fear in ten years we will speak purely in initials, and i might somehow end up living in my own world of 'old english' if you can't beat them join them, otherwise you can end up in the 'over the hill, remember the good old days group' and cast out into the useless old fogey pile! LOL (and yeah i laugh at my own jokes.....i'm old) | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 3:58:47 AM | it used to bother me ...... but then i realised that being bothered about three letters and the latest language fad isn't worth being bothered about ....
so what if kids actually say it out loud now .. lol, lulz. lols or whatever derivation they choose to use .... mine tend to use it in a sarcarstic way ... in a kind of lol, laughing at you not with you, style.
i do remember them all from back in the days of chat rooms .... even then i never took it or used it as anctul indication that i was laughing out loud or even rolling on the floor ... it was just an indication of amusement and different levels of how amus people were .. lol, rofl, pmsl ..... i never did quite get the lolololololololol thing though ... i'm not where it fits on on the scale of internet amusement expression | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 4:04:48 AM |
I sort of get that, but if someone says "I don't like your last post you are a £$&£$% moron and a total *$%^&", and I'm going to slit your ^%$$!&* throat! LOL"... there was kind of enough information there to know what it was really about.
I was thinking more of my sarcasm, which gets misunderstood in texts
eg. I might say "I'll try to fit you in to my busy schedule"
I assume that they'll know I was joking, that there is no busy scedule, but they may just think I'm snooty or not really interested. etc.
(Yes, I know, you should never assume anything!)
I have had texts misunderstood many times, there is no way of knowing "how" a person says stuff.... | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 4:36:27 AM | It's not just LOLs it's OMG, PMSL etc etc etc, my wee brother (who is nearly 17) uses them all when he is talking and no he is not a chav/ned.
It is just a fad and will forgotten about soon, well I hope so anyway  | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 7:12:46 AM | I've never heard 'lol' spoken! As has been asked.... do they say "el oh el" or "loll"?
I hate it when people put it at the end of a written sentence and think that it somehow makes things funny which actually aren't.
Language is always changing, growing, evolving, so I guess this is just the latest new thing. | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 7:13:44 AM | | The only time LOL, LMAO, ROFL, PMSL etc wind me up is when people place them at the end of their own jokes. THat bugs the hell out of me, but otherwise I really don't care. | |
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Posted: 11/6/2009 7:14:00 AM | | I use it on the net and very occasionally in a text, but if you ever hear me saying it out loud as part of a conversation instead of actually laughing at something funny, you have my permission to shoot me on the spot. Or slap me. | |
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