Regardless of the era, the new words in the OED always are met with some criticism by language purists. However, one recent inclusion to the OED has caused a particularly large amount of criticism: “LOL.” For those who don’t know, “LOL” stands for “laughing out loud.” The OED defines it as:
“Etymology: Initialism < the initial letters of laughing out loud ; sometimes also pronounced as an acronym. Colloq… Originally and chiefly in the language of electronic communications: ‘ha ha!’; used to draw attention to a joke or humorous statement, or to express amusement.”
After the OED announced that LOL would be joining the ranks of new words like “to heart”, “la-la land”, anti- LOL groups appeared on Facebook and bloggers spoke against the initialism in posts with titles like “Death of the Dictionary.” Whether you love LOL or hate it, you can probably at least appreciate the roots of the word and what they mean.
Underneath the OED definition for LOL, you will see the brief history of its origins. According the OED researchers, LOL was first used in the UseNet newsgroup FidoNews in 1989. By 1993, it had spread to other newsgroups on UseNet. After a few more years, LOL had infiltrated AOL chatrooms, then the internet, and then popular culture.
We know that Google has the archives of UseNet newsgroups on file. So who is responsible for coming up with LOL and changing our vocabulary (for better or for worse)? It was a man from Calgary named Wayne Pearson who wrote the acronym as a joke when replying to UseNet member “Sprout.”