Just thought I’d give you a quick run down on Twitter-speak !
I saw a great article on Twitter Speak ( here ) .Its just amazing and a little disturbing how much people are moving away from the ‘Queens English’ . How many of the list do you use ?
- ?4U: Question for you
- .02: Two cents (i.e., one’s opinion)
- 1337: Leet, short for “Elite,” used to describe a symbolic form of writing by hardcore tech folks. Google it and you’ll see what I mean. As with all things internet, it can be used sarcastically
- 420: Marijuana
- 2GTBT: Too good to be true
- A3: Anytime, anyplace, anywhere
- ADDY: Address, usual in regards to an email address
- AFAIK: As far as I know
- AFK: Away from keyboard
- AYTMTB: And you’re telling me this because…
- Beast/Beastmode
- BBIAM: Be back in a minute
- BBL: Be back later
- BRB: Be right back
- BTDT: Been there, done that
- BTW: By the way
- DM: Direct message, this allows you to send messages to someone on twitter without others seeing it, though it requires users follow one another. This isn’t hugely popular, as it is essentially a cruder form of email, and is usually only used by two people who aren’t close enough to email, but want to take a quick idea “offline” and out of their public twitter feed
- Epic Fail: The worst kind of fail
- Fail: Often used sarcastically to mock an attempt to do something
- FB: Facebook
- Follow: On twitter, this is how you choose to receive a person’s status updates. Without following someone (similar to friending people on facebook), you won’t see their updates
- FTW: For the win (indicating something positive, such as “Free ham sandwich for the win)
- FTL: For the loss (indicating something negative, or undesirable, as in “Speeding ticket FTL)
- FWIW: For what it’s worth
- FYEO: For your eyes only
- H/T: Hat tip (as an informal source citation)
- HFAC: Holy flippin’ animal crackers
- HTH: Hope that helps
- ICYMI: In case you missed it
- IKR: I know right
- IMHO: In my humble or honest opinion
- JSYK: Just so you know
- K: Terse version of “okay,” often meant to indicate tone
- LMK: Let me know
- n00b: A novice
- NSFW: Describes content not safe to be viewed at work (or school)
- OG: Original gangster (indicating pioneering or legendary status of some sort)
- OTOH: On the other hand
- PIR: Parents in the room
- RT: Retweet (Very similar to an email forward but on twitter; if you re-broadcast someone else’s message to all of your followers, you’re “Re-tweeting.”)
- SMH: Shake my head (to indicate disappointment, disagreement, etc.)
- TIA: Thanks in advance
- TFTF: Thanks for the follow (on twitter)
- TMI: Too much information–usually used–surprise–ironically
- Trending: A label that indicates something is popular on twitter at the moment
- #: A hashtag that acts like a sort of magnet for all messages appended with that hashtag. This automatic aggregator allows for users to find messages labeled as such (#soirritating, for example)
- #FF/#Follow Friday: “Follow Friday,” a weekly event where twitter users recommend other twitter accounts worth following
- YGM: You’ve got mail (like an alert letting reader know to check their mail, which implies email’s lack of popularity compared to social media messaging)
- YMMV: Your mileage may vary
- YT: YouTube
Please feel free to comment below
Richard
Digital Excellence Experts 