Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[nawee]

Hello,

I came across this word "emote" in on your posts. Are emotes and emoticons the same?

And I looked up the word "emote" in various dictionaries (happy to learn a new word!) and it's listed as a verb with "emoter" as the noun form. Is "emote" a variant noun form of "emoter" or are they different words all together.

Thank you,

Nawee

[redset]

Hi!

Ok, emote is basically a new word coined for the Internet concept of expressing emotions and actions in text, like *excited* and :runs out of room:. Emoter is basically a noun based on the verb, meaning 'someone or something which emotes' - the noun emote isn't exactly based on grammatical rules, it just started being widely used on the Internet, so don't worry too much about that. Bear in mind, though, that people unfamiliar with the internet might not know this meaning of the word!

Emoticons are the pictures (emote + icons), sometimes emotes create emoticons - like typing :roll: here will change it to , the rolleyes emoticon (the most misused emoticon on the Internet!). Things like :D and B) and 8^) are meant to look like faces when you turn your head, so they're also emoticons (also called smileys or smilies because they're smiley faces, even if they're not always smiling. is a smiley too).

People sometimes use emote when they mean emoticon, but they're fairly new words so the rules aren't set in stone. The Internet's a great source of neologism (there's a good word!).

[nawee]

Crystal clear! Thank you very much, Redset.

Nawee