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Here's an emoji: 😻

Here's an emoticon: :‐)

As we will see below, the superficial resemblance of the two words is completely coincidental — even though they both have to do with the visual depiction of emotions and ideas in texts.

This post began as a comment to "Emoticons as writing" (7/7/19), but it soon became too long and too complex to fit in a comment, so it now receives separate treatment of its own.

Basic definition and etymology for emoji:

e·mo·ji

(ē-mō′jē)

n. pl. emoji also e·mo·jis

1. A standardized ideogrammatic icon, as of a face or a heart, used especially in electronic messages or on webpages.

2. Such icons considered collectively.

[Japanese : e, picture (from Old Japanese we, from Early Middle Chinese γwəjh) + moji, writing (from Old Japanese monji, moji, from Early Middle Chinese mun dzı̷h (also the source of Mandarin wénzì) mun, mark, writing (from Old Chinese mə, soot + -n, n. suffix, since Chinese ink is traditionally made from soot) + dzı̷h, symbol, character; see kanji).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.

Cf.

emoji 絵文字 ("picture writing") = e 絵 ("picture") + moji 文字 ("writing") < mo 文 ("simple graph") + ji 字 ("complex graph") — there are other, more subtle and nuanced, explanations of the difference between mo / wén 文 and ji / zì 字, as in the research of Françoise Bottéro

etoki 絵解き ("picture explanation") = e 絵 ("picture") + toki 解き ("explanation")

emaki 絵巻 ("picture scroll") = e 絵 ("picture") + maki 巻 ("scroll")

OED citations for emoji:

1997 27 Oct. 25/5 P-kies CD-ROM Emoji Word Processor software featuring more than 500 pictorial symbols has become a hit since it debuted July 11.

2001 Oct. 74/1 Emoji..consists of tiny pixelated images that sub for words in mobile gossiping.

2005 A. Pashtan iii. 44 Another extension is the use of the emoji icon symbols.

2011 (Nexis) 28 Apr. b9 If you've downloaded an app for emojis, those little happy faces and icons, you can add it to your list of keyboards in this panel.

The "face with tears of joy" emoji (😂) was chosen as Word of the Year 2015 by Oxford Dictionaries.

Basic definition and etymology for emoticon:

e·mo·ti·con

(ĭ-mō′tĭ-kŏn′)

n.

A facial glyph, used especially in email, texts, and instant messages and sometimes typed sideways, that indicates an emotion or attitude, as [ :-) ] to indicate delight, humor, or irony or [ :'( ] to indicate sadness.

[emot(ion) + icon.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.

Thus, the word "emoticon" has an entirely different derivation than "emoji", being a portanteau of English "emotion" and "icon".

Dates for early occurrences of emoticon

From Ben Zimmer:

The most recent draft entry for "emoticon" in the online OED was published in June 2001. The earliest citation given in the entry is from April 1988:

1988 Logo Exchange Apr. 8/2 Funny faces, made of text characters, and seen when looking sideways, can punctuate sentences with humorous emotion. These symbol collections are also called ‘emoticons’… Emoticons are typically used in informal typed correspondence, such as electronic mail… Emoticon variations can reflect many different humorous themes… :-) humorous.. :-D smile!.. :-* oops!

However, that citation implies that the term was already known at the time. Here's an earlier example from Jan. 1987 in the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.amiga:

Jim Greenlee, comp.sys.amiga, "Mac vs. Amiga," Jan. 31, 1987

Can we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take this discussion elsewhere (I personally nominate talk.religion.really.stupid.meaningless.arguments.about.computers <- no emoticon – I'm serious, folks).

Merriam-Webster dates "emoticon" to 1987 in its current entry, likely based on this example. But since it wasn't presented as a new coinage, this can probably be antedated further.

Although "emoji" and "emoticon" are relatively recent coinages, they have both taken deep root in contemporary writing, culture, and consciousness. Moreover — despite the fact that they clearly have distinct derivation — their propinquity of coinage, similarity of usage, and identity of the initial two syllables, plus (as pointed out in this comment to the previous post on this subject) the fact that many programs convert one into the other and consider them as interchangeable, all induce English speakers to confuse the two.

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