ACRONYMS & EMOTICONS
and things that look like them

Multiple Letter Acronyms are frequently used online in email, chat rooms, etc. They are not designed to confuse you, but are useful for busy people with 'hunt and peck' typing skills. Note that, just as in normal sentences, adding a question mark after an acronym turns it into a question. Here is a list of some common acronyms and emoticons you might run across in cyberspace.

     AFAIK      As Far As I Know
     AOL        America OnLine (tm)
  AWGTHTGTTA?   Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again?  
 AWGTHTGTATA?   Are We Going To Have To Go Through ALL This Again?
     DUOE       Dried-Up Old Eunuch. To quote Jo Peshek, 
                "An organization of folks who have thoughts about things 
                other than sex. We do occasionally think about sex, but 
                it isn't an exclusive subject in our lives. In other 
                words, we have brains as well as hormones."
  B4N or BFN    Bye For Now
     BAD        Broken As Designed
     BAMF       Bad Arsed Mother Flusher 
     BBS        Bulletin Board System
     BN         Buck Naked
     BRB        Be Right Back
     BBR        Burnt Beyond Repair
     BRS        Big Red Switch
     BTA        But Then Again 
     BTW        By The Way
     BWQ        Buzz Word Quotient
     CIS        Compuserve Information System (tm)
     CU         See You
     CUL8R      See You Later
   DL or D/L    Download (Transmitted To You)
     DTRT       Do The Right Thing
     DWIMC      Do What I Mean, Correctly
     ESAD       Eat Sand and Die
     FFRD       Flying Fart in a Rolling Donut
     FISH       First In, Still Here
     FITB       Fill In The Blank
     FOAF       Friend of A Friend
     FRED       Flaming Ridiculous Electronic Device
     FUBAR      Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition
     FURTB      Full Up Ready To Burst
     FWIW       For What It's Worth
     FYI        For Your Information
     GAFIA      Get Away From It All
     GDW        Grin, Duck and Weave
     GFR        Grim File Reaper (pervasive data destroyer)
     GIGO       Garbage in, Garbage Out (or Gospel Out)
     GIWIST     Gee I Wish I'd Said That
     GLGH       Good Luck and Good Hunting
     GR&D       Grinning, Running, and Ducking
 IITYWIMWYBMAD  If I tell you what it means, will you buy me a drink?
     IAE        In Any Event
     IMAO       In My Arrogant Opinion
     IMHO       In My Humble Opinion
     IMNSHO     In My Not-So Humble Opinion
     IMO        In My Opinion
     IMOBO      In My Own Biased Opinion
     INPO       In No Particular Order
     IOW        In Other Words
     IWBNI      If Would Be Nice If
     IYFEG      Insert Your Favorite Ethnic Group
     LLTA       Lots and Lots of Thunderous Applause
     LOL        Laughing Out Loud
     MOTAS      Member Of The Appropriate Sex
     MOTOS      Member Of The Opposite Sex
     MOTSS      Member Of The Same Sex
     NFW        No Friggin Way
     NSS        No Shit, Sherlock
     OIC        Oh, I see
     ook!       This means "My pleasure centers have been diddled!"
     OOSD       Ook Ook Slobber Drool!
     OOTC       Obligatory On Topic Comment
     OTOH       On The Other Hand
     PITA       Pain In The Ass
     PITN       Pain In The Neck
     PITR       Pain In The Rear
     PLOKTA     Press Lots Of Keys To Abort
     POSSLQ     Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters
     POV        Point Of View
     PMFBI      Pardon Me For Butting In
     ROF,L      Rolling On Floor, Laughing
   ROFLASTC!    Rolling On Floor Laughing And Scaring The Cat
     RPG        Role Playing Games
     RSN        Real Soon Now
     RTFM       Read The Friggin Manual (or Message)
     SFLA       Stupid Four Letter Acronym
     SMOP       Small Matter of Programming
     SNAFU      Situation Normal, All Fouled Up
     SO         Significant Other
     SPAM       SPiced hAM or something like that.  A brand of semiedible 
                canned meat referred to in a famous Monty Python's Flying 
                Circus sketch.  Or, voluminous junk email. 
     SWMBO      She Who Must Be Obeyed
     SYSOP      SYStem OPerator
     TAFN       Thats All For Now
     TANJ       There Ain't No Justice
   TANSTAAFL    There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
     TDM        Too Damn Many
     TGIF       Thank God Its Friday
     TIA        Thanks In Advance
     TPTB       The Powers That Be
     TTBOMK     To The Best Of My Knowledge
     TTL4N      Thats The Lot For Now
     TTFN       Ta Ta For Now
  UL or U/L     Upload (Something You Send)
   WAMKSAM      Why Are My Kids (or Kitties) Staring At Me?
 WYLABOCTGWTR   Would You Like A Bowl Of Cream To Go With That Remark?
  WYLASOMWTC    Would You Like A Saucer Of Milk With That Comment?
     YMMV       Your Mileage May Vary
     WOTAM      Waste Of Time And Money
    WOFTAM      Waste Of Friggin Time And Money
   WYGIWYPF     What You Get Is What You Pay For
    WYSBYGI     What You See Before You Get It
    WYSIWYG     What You See Is What You Get
     YABA       Yet Another Bloody Acronym


  EMOTICONS                    

  Emoticons are symbols to denote emotions.  
  Sometimes it is just a word inside < > brackets. Examples,

   <g> or <grin>   Used to mark a joke, sarcasm, etc.
   <G>             Big Grin
   <sigh>
   <EG>            Evil Grin (Capitals => emphasis => BIG Evil Grin)

  Some popular emoticons are:

    :-) or :)    a smile
    ;-) or ;)    a smile with winking eye
    :-( or :(    a frown

        ^^       happiness
        ^^;      embarrasment
        ;;       sadness
        --       when it's the occasion to bow


  SPECIALIZED ACRONYMS               
  For particular topics or conferences. Examples,

   Star-Trek Topics
    ST-TOS      Star Trek, The Original Series
    ST-TNG      Star Trek, The Next Generation
     YATI       Yet Another Trek Inconsistency
 y'yin quap'je  A Klingon salutation, translates as "survive and succeed"

   Fandom Topics
     DUFF       Down Under Fan Fund
     FBT        Frigging Blue Turtleoid.  Refers to the gigantic blue six 
                legged turtle like critter with several people tied to its 
                back which appears on the cover of John DeChancie's novel, 
                CASTLE KIDNAPPED.
     FIAWOL     Fandom Is A Way Of Life
     FIJAGH     Fandom Is Just A Ghoddam Hobby (or possibly "Ghu-dam")
     FIJASOI    Fandom is Just Another Source of Income
     SMOF       Secret Masters of Fandom
     TAFF       Trans Atlantic Fan Fund 

   Acronyms About Acronyms
     ETLA       Extended Three Letter Acronym
     MLA        Multiple Letter Acronym
     TLA        Three Letter Acronym

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