The Meme Textbook Part 2: The Language of the Internet | Page 5

flexible with the amount of letters replaced by
other shapes, there is a generally accepted alpha-
bet. Fig. 1 is a table of common translations.
fig. 1
Other Phrases
A number of other words have been invented
or reinterpreted on the internet. The word
‘derp’ meaning something stupid, was likely a
modernization of the British ‘dur’ also mean-
ing something stupid. It is often associated
with crossed eyes or other silly faces. (Fig. 3)
Although mostly obsolete today, this word
was widely used in the early 2000s. Noob is
a term meaning unexperienced, most often
used in video games, and is derived from the
word newbie. It was popularized as leet speak
became popular; originally spelled as n00b.
A number of other acronyms have also become
popular. Examples include tl;dr (too long;
didn’t read), which is used when a post on a
forum is too long, fomo (fear of missing out)
which is a feeling that a person might miss
an event, and idgaf (I don’t give a fuck).
fig. 2
fig. 3
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