Well, it’s official as far as I’m concerned. Social media and texting have destroyed the language in the process of making it easy to connect with one another in more and more commercially mediated ways. A curse and a blessing at the same time!
Having originated in online fora and message boards in the 1980s and 90s, the following abbreviations have evolved to shorten the time taken, the storage needed, or the bandwidth used to communicate. With the advent of texting, Twitter and 140 character limits, the TLA (three letter acronym) has become more of a necessity.
This list is far from exhaustive (I left out some X rated ones). If you have some you’d add to the list, please feel free to comment on this post (see form below text). TTFN.
143 I love you
2U2 To you too
A3 Anyplace, anywhere, anytime
AAMOF As a matter of fact
AFAICS As far as I can see
AFAYC As far as you’re concerned
agl Angel
AISI As I see it
ANFSCD And now for something completely different
ASAP As soon as possible
AYPI And your point is?
BFFE Best friends forever
BFFN Best friend for now
biffles Best friends for life
BTW By the way
C4N Ciao for now
CRTLA Can’t remember the three letter acronym
CU2MR See you tomorrow
CYFB Check your Facebook
D/C Don’t care
DYD Don’t you dare
e1 Everyone
f9 Fine
fb Facebook
FTF Face to Face
FTTB For the time
G9 Genius
GUFN Grounded until further notice
gz Congratulations
h8t Hate
HC How cool
HLBD Happy late birthday
HOPE Have Only Positive Expectations
HPDC Happy People Don’t Complain
HRU How are you?
HWU Hey, what’s up?
IA I agree
IAB In a bit
IMD In my dreams
IMHO In my humble opinion
J/K Just kidding
LFTD Laugh for the day
lil Little
LLPOF Liar liar pants on fire
LMK Let me know
LOL Laugh(ing) out loud
MIA Missing in action
MTF More to follow
NB Not bad
nvm Nevermind
OBO Or best offer
OH Overheard
OOH Out of here
PDH Pretty darn hot
pls Please
POTB Pat on the back
Rly Really
RT Re-tweet (forward original text)
SAT Sorry about that
SMF So much fun
thx Thanks
TTYL Talk to you later
TY Thank you
TMG That’s my girl
TMI Too much information
U2U Up to you
Ul Unlucky
WADR With all due respect
WDYT What do you think
WL Whatta loser
xfer Transfer
XO Kiss and Hug
YDI You deserve it
YVW You’re very welcome
YW You’re welcome
