YahELite: Common terms used in chat
This is in no way to be considered a complete list of terms that one might see in chat, but rather is presented here to help you get understand what is being said in chatrooms. Often people will make up their own abbreviations as needed and rooms will have their own lingo and dialect of chat-speak.
When entering a new room, it is polite pause a moment and get a feel for the room's rules. In some rooms it considered very rude to ask ASL and very well might get you flamed, (attacked) while in other rooms it is an acceptable question that is frequesntly asked.
| AFK | Away From the Keyboard |
| ASAP | As Soon As Possible |
| ASL | age / sex / location |
| Ava | Avatar |
| BAK | Back At Keyboard |
| BBS | Be Back Soon |
| BBL | Be Back Later |
| BBFN | Bye Bye For Now |
| BBIAB | Be Back in a Bit |
| BF | Boy Friend |
| BFH | Big F***ing Hammer |
| BRB | Be Right Back |
| BTW | By The Way |
| Ears | Voice Chat |
| FAQs | Frequently Asked Questions |
| FFS | For F****s Sake |
| FYI | For Your Information |
| GF | Girl Friend. |
| GMTA | Great Minds Think Alike |
| Google It | Go to www.google.com and research it |
| GTG | Got To Go |
| ICQ | "I Seek You" ICQ: instant message program |
| IGGY | Ignore |
| IM | Instant Message |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion |
| IRC | Internet Relay Chat: software to access internet chat rooms |
| IRL | In Real Life |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider: a company that provides internet access |
| KISS | Keep It Simple, Stupid |
| L8R | Later |
| LMAO | Laughing My A** Off |
| LMHO | Laughing My Head Off |
| LOL | Laughing Out Loud |
| LTNS | Long Time No See |
| MYOB | Mind Your Own Business |
| NE1 | Any One |
| Newbie | Newcomer: new to the Internet |
| n00b | Naive newcomer |
| NP | No Problem |
| OIC | Oh, I See |
| OMG | Oh My God |
| PITA | Pain In The A** |
| PM | Private Message |
| PPL | People |
| ROTFL | Rolling On The Floor Laughing |
| ROTFLMAO | Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A** Off |
| RTM | Read The Manual |
| RTFM | Read The F***ing Manual |
| SNAFU | Situation Normal: All F***ed Up |
| SNERT | Snot-Nosed Egotistical Rude Teenager |
| SOL | SH** Out Of Luck |
| TC | Take Care |
| TROLL | person with the sole intent of starting an argument |
| TTFN | Ta Ta For Now |
| TTUL | Talk To You Later |
| TTYT | Talk To You Tomorrow. |
| TY | Thank You |
| Typo | TYPOgraphical error |
| URL | Universal Resource Locator: the unique address of a webpage |
| WB | Welcome Back |
| WTF | What The F*** |
| YW | You're Welcome |
