Emoticon and emoji

Emoji and emoticons are not the same thing.

An emoticon is a typographic display of a facial representation, used to convey emotion in a text only medium. They preceded the emoji in an earlier time of email, text messages on older mobile phones, websites and social networks when an image wasn't available.   The happy face  :-) and winking face ;-) are still used and some websites and apps will automatically convert these text characters to an emoji.

"Emoticon" is a portmanteau for emotion + icon and like the emojis that would follow, they were meant to convey pictorially a facial expression and give some indication of the tone or temper of a sender's message.

The origin probably predates the Internet but in its modern form seems to date back to 1982. Computer scientist Scott Fahlman suggested to the Carnegie Mellon University message board that :-) and :-( could be used to distinguish jokes from serious statements online. The word "emoticon" came into being shortly after that.

These combinations of punctuation marks, numbers, symbols and letters, did communicate some feelings or mood, but with newer devices and apps the more stylized emoji emerged.

Have we made progress in being able to graphically express a heart, crying face, beer mug, or pile of excrement? Debateable.

You may not know that while Western emoticons are usually written at a right angle to the direction of the text, in Japan a kind of "Japanese emoticon" called kaomojis was popular.

"Emoji" comes from Japanese "picture" (e) + "character" (moji). These images require no tilt of the head to be seen properly and don't rely on text characters.

Originating on Japanese mobile phones, they were created in the late 1990s by NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese communications firm, but are used worldwide, popularized by their inclusion in Apple's iPhone software. Android and other mobile operating systems quickly followed.

The resemblance of emoji to the English words emotion and emoticon is purely coincidental.

Unlike emoticons, emoji are actual pictures, but while emoticons were invented to portray emotion in environments where nothing but basic text is available, emoji are actually extensions to the character set used by most operating systems today, Unicode.

Emoji work as long as the software explicitly supports them – otherwise a placeholder icon, or even just a blank space will display.

Different services and apps have their own interpretations of what an emoji looks like. The “dancer” emoji for Twitter and Apple is a female flamenco dancer, but for Google, it was once a disco guy.
What's a💃to do?

Bowdlerize

I think there are a few words, including bowdlerize, that will be more evident in the media this year as we hear more about censorship in its many forms. "Expurgation" is a form of censorship in which something deemed noxious or offensive is purged. It is often used in the context of an artistic work.

Bowdlerization is a pejorative term for that practice. Usually, it is when material (particularly in books) is deemed as "lewd."

The origin of this eponym comes from Thomas Bowdler's 1818 edition of the plays of William Shakespeare. Bowdler expurgated the plays before publishing them to make them "more suitable for women and children."

Bowdler was was an English physician and philanthropist, but is best known for publishing his 19th century version titled The Family Shakspeare. This expurgated edition was edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler.

Bowdlerise (or the American spelling bowdlerize) is now associated with the censorship of literature, movies and television programs.

You may also se the term "fig-leaf edition" used to describe an expurgated/bowdlerized text. That phrase comes from the old practice of covering the genitals of nudes in classical and Renaissance statues and paintings with fig leaves.

Ouch

Ouch!  You probably have used this word to express sudden pain. It may be an involuntary response but studies suggest that this kind of vocalization helps distract you from the pain.

Ouch is an interjection, a word that shows a sudden outburst of emotion or excitement. You usually find them at the start of a sentence, or all alone with an exclamation mark. Wow!

"Ouch" is not universal. Other languages use other interjections. Do you know one? Post it in a comment below.

"Ouch" is an Americanism that comes from Middle English ouche (noun), from nouche , Old French nosche and German autsch.

I couldn't pin down its first known use in English, but it is at least earlier than the 20th century.

It is interesting that researchers found that saying “ow” (a more modern interjection interchangeable with "ouch") during the experiment increased the subjects’ tolerance for pain. But hearing a recording of their own voice or someone else’s voice saying “ow” did not help at all. An earlier study found that swearing is also an effective way to increase pain tolerance.

Though I had never encountered other usages, I found that OUCH can mean as a noun a clasp, buckle, or brooch, especially one worn for ornament, or the setting of a precious stone, and as a verb (used with object) meaning to adorn with or as if with ouches.