SMILEY

Smileys are a strange and fun Internet phenomenon, more correctly known as emoticons, which have the purpose of conveying emotion. They are used particularly in online chat rooms and in e-mails.

There are no strict rules for composing smileys, and so numerous varieties have been invented and are in use. The principle is to create a face (viewed by tipping the head to the side) using standard keyboard characters and punctuation.

A typical smiley would be constructed from a colon or equals sign for eyes, a hyphen or "O" as a nose, and a bracket forming the mouth. Examples of different happy smileys are shown below:
:-) : ) :o) =O)
Not all smileys are smiley, though; here are some sad ones:
:-( :( :0( =o(

Here is a selection of other smileys with their meanings:
:o) happy

:o# lips are sealed

:o( sad

>:o frowning

;o) winking

:o hmm

oO yawning

:o9 licking lips

: * kiss

Xo) cross eyed

:oP sticking tongue out

(:o) bald

:~( crying

:o)> has a beard

:oD laughing

:o)' drooling

(o: left handed

8o) wearing glasses

C:o) wearing a bowler hat

[:o) wearing headphones

FROM: fun-with-words.com