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Saturday, April 27, 2013

XOXO – The virtual love lingo


So, for the uninitiated, XOXO are the kisses and hugs. Yes, in the virtual world, like many other interesting and slightly weird emoticons, XOXO stands for kisses and hugs. X is kiss and O is a hug. The visual description of XO is the X is your lips intertwined in a kiss and O is your arms closed around in an embrace.

Interestingly, this XOXO is not a new internet phenomenon. This dates back to ancient times when people inscribed X on the letters to display their belief in Christianity and kiss the X to seal the envelope. Later, it was believed that Jewish started writing O instead of X. And much later, the O began representing an embrace, a hug.  

And as in the dotcom age, we are short of time as it is, with Twitter ruling the web with 140 characters. Where is the time to write and to read? So, for our own convenience, we have come up with abbreviations for all possible frequently used words. 

Sample some of them:

HBD – Happy Birthday
BRB – Be right back
TYVM – Thank you very much
BTW – By the way

There are more, many more. But you get the drift. 

Call me stupid but I always thought LOL was lots of love. Though I never used it, but when I got to know that it was laugh out loud, I never again used it. Yes, I do laugh out loud on a joke but I prefer using a :D instead of a LOL. Don’t ask me why! I have my own weaknesses!

So, ya coming back to XOXO, the kisses and hugs. In this world swamped by LOL and BTW, where is the time to express love? Where is the time to make someone feel special? Where is the time to make someone wait for you on the other side of the virtual world when you 5 mins back wrote BRB?
Seriously, there is no time. So, when you are chatting up with someone you love, be it your parents, siblings, friends or lover, sitting apart from each other, make them feel your love. Send them the warmth, the affection, the feelings and love. Yes, internet may have given us crude short forms like HBD, it has XOXO to spread the love!

To all my beautiful readers, I may not have said it earlier but felt it always nonetheless, here is my love to all you all…



13 comments:

  1. Cute! Love and hugs to you too, Naina.

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  2. loved it
    XOXO to u too.. I knew what is XOXO when some one posted on my pic in FB. I thought it has some full form.. hmmpf :-/
    and LOL- lots of love I guess many had that confusion :)

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  3. There's always ways to get round the letter X, good post.

    Yvonne.

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  4. Liked the history of XOXO... was not aware of it! A few days ago, our friends, a husband and wife duo had an argument over LOL... Husband thought it was Lots of Love and wife knew the right thing and we had to play referee! :D

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  5. XOXO back. I liked your choice of topic :)

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  6. My Grandmother always finished her letters with xxxooo. Maybe I should go back to that in texts with my daughter instead of LUH (Love you heaps)

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  7. And XOXO to you too :) a nice take on X.

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  8. I still know onlyt half of them :-/

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  9. Yup, I remember my school teacher had signed an autograph for me with xoxo. But on a serious note, the virtual lingo scares me. I see no language connect and I get lost. At this rate we will go back to primeval times and speak in signs......sigh!

    Dropping by from AtoZ
    BlogwatiG

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