Did Abraham Lincoln Invent the Emoticon (Smiley) ?

‘;’ is a typo. Note the opening Bracket (before applause) and closing bracket (after ‘;’)

Also note the [Renewed applause.] Simply they are Typing mistake

Ya.. this is interesting…! But I think this is totally mistaken.(?)

// (applause and laughter ;) //

Its just the opening brace and closing brace, and and the semi-colon. If it is intended to mean a smiley, it should have been like (applause and laughter ;))

Since there is an open bracket on the left side, it is safe to assume that the space between laughter and the semi-colon is a typographical error, and the “smile” is the close bracket. Cute nonetheless! ;)

Looks more like a typo than a smiley.

It’s not a smiley, as you can see the “(” and on the end “)”. Either the ; is a typo or it represents something(like “wait 10 seconds” – before continuing the speech or something like that).

The above is a transcript. A transcript is a typewritten record of a dictated speech. So if it is an emoticon, it was created by the typist (or type setter). When you are writing a speech you do not indicate where applause or laughter might occur – you wouldn’t know that until after the speech had been given! The suggestion that Lincoln created the emoticaon is just ridiculous!

Uhhh no…

Of COURSE he did! It’s Abe Lincoln! He could do ANYTHING. And that’s a fact. ;)

(I’m'na call it an “Abe Wink” from now on.)

I agree with Someone. It is ridiculous to assume that Lincoln invented the emoticon, since this was obviously written post-speech.

I don’t think it was a typo, though. This construct (including both :) and ;)) appears a lot in the Old Testament for example (King James Version).

See Genesis 14:8, for example: link

seriously man ;)

I also dont agree with this post .. its pretty visible that he was closing the bracket and there is maximum possibility that it could be just a typo .. nothing else ..

May be it is a typographical error but as most great thing happend by a mistake, this mistake might be the cause of emoticon.

It’s a no-news from Times. The emoticon is anyway contextually irrelevant. And secondly, as everyone mentions its a typo..

Times making a spicy news out of seemingly some email forward

Interesting News .. was that a real fact are may be some one did a typographical mistake..

Please, people, it’s a joke! It’s also hilarious! Nice “find”, Amit!

This is obviously photoshopped.

It’s a very clever observation, but probably just a typo. STILL, among the many people who read this news article in 1862, SOMEONE must have said “Hmmm. That kinda looks like a winking face!” I’d be very surprised if it occurred to no one at all.

I’m not sure if it’s a typo, there have been plenty of times I’ve typed something (and added a note between parentheses and since I have to close the parentheses anyway I use it to include some kind of smiley, whether it be ; or :) Maybe it was meant to be kind of an ‘inside’ joke between Lincoln and whoever transcribed it.

I think this was most likely typed on a typewriter.

If only humor was that obvious…

Actually, it’s (maybe not anymore) gramatically correct. The semicolon is denoting the beginning of a new, independent clause, even though it’s in parentheses. It’s the same thing as if you’d put a period after a sentence in parentheses.

i totally believe he invented it! the smiley definitely fits into the context of what he’s saying! land of lincoln represent!

most inventions come to be by mistake and I would qualify this as good as any mistake turned into something awesome that lasted for generations.

If he had invented it, it would be ===|;)

I’m going to agree with most/all people here (and probably also with the person who wrote this blog, who does not at all seem to endorse the idea that Abraham Lincoln invented the emoticon), but I will also say that one can not discredit the idea on the basis of the opening bracket. There is absolutely no reason why an unprecedented smiley would be expected to conform to the modern convention of not making double use of punctuation.

A better rational would be to point out that typographical errors are common. (Further, because of the limitations of movable type, it would not be inconceivable that the semicolon was stuck in there in lieu of a handy spacer.)

Since typographical errors are common it is completely conceivable that some configuration such as this simple one would randomly occur. (The microcosm of monkeys typing… a two-character combination is not unlikely at all.)

One would need further samples to have cause to believe that this was anything more than a random accidental coincidence.

People, it is not a word then a semicolon then a end parenthesis as one would type if they typed the semicolon character by accident. for example: I wouldn’t sit there typing something (and meaning this other thing ) and put a space after the word that ends the parenthetical statement (I would just end it).

I would also think any parenthesis goes after the closing bracket as previous unlike quotation marks which has the punctuation before “the end.”

So, in conclusion I am not an English “major,” but I do give a lovage and don’t want anyone spreading any typo “garbage.” The typesetter and not Abe amused themself by adding the semicolon, honestly.

If Lincoln did invent the emoticom then Mr Emoticom would be collecting Social Security. By now his Social Security payments would be astronomical and would bankrupt the Social Security system. The US has enough economic problems as it is. Stop spreading this rumor, please.

eh, it’s a typo, that’s all.

like this is a type: (.)(.)

yeah, sorry abt that.

I don’t think it is a typographical error or an emoticon; reading further along it is clear that the transcriber used punctuation in the following bracket. As I see it, the semi-colon there represents a natural pause in the sentence, as well as noting the laughter of the audience during the pause. It may be possible that the semi-colon was inserted there to avoid suggesting the next portion was a new sentence starting with the word ‘and.’ If I recall from grammar back in the day, starting a sentence with ‘and’ was poor form.

I guess that’s how it means nowadays! The birth of emoticon, well some inventions were discovered by human mistakes. This is one fine example. Now that Mr. Lincoln is now of America’s political atmosphere what kind of Mistake will Mr. Obama do to create a new icon?

obvious typo

it was a bit hard to fix typos in the old days

plus if he was doing a smiley surely he would invent the standard smiley first, not the winking smiley

It’s clearly nothing more than photoshopped garbage. I have the original transcript right here on my desk in front of me and there’s no typo.

yes but but the first time they type applause the put it in square bracts “[]”

also it is true that Abraham Lincoln didn’t type the text itself but he did type the emoticon itself. how it is possible? you ask, I’ll tell you. I’m sure he looked over the shoulder of the person who did and told him the “;” in order to make the emoticon.
not the guy who did type it for him did a typo and typed ( instead of [ on the second time. now since they used typewriters back then they couldn't just use backspace to correct the error. the guy was worried that Lincoln will be angry for the mistake. but Lincoln was in a good mood that day and told him "don't worry just add and emoticon at the end of these brackets" and the gay asked him "what is emoticon?" and Lincoln got angry and told him "damn do i have to do everything around here? move over" and he kicked him out of the chair added the ";)" and told him "this is an emoticon you see it looks like a smiling face. now get back to work and finish typing"
and as you can see the guy was now extra careful typing with no more typing errors and the 3rd time he needed bracts he used the correct ones "[]“.

so you CAN say that Abraham Lincoln invented the emoticon but this invention, like many other great inventions, was born out of a typing error.

The typewriter did not become popular until the 1870’s and
the text is fully justified and font is proportional, so it
is probably not a “keyboard” error from a typewriter. This was probably done manually on a movable type printing press.

Probably someone was fixing an error and needed to fill some spacing. Rather reset the entire line they just added spacing. They probably used the semicolon by mistake. Perhaps they intended to put it in on its side or upside down so that it would take space but not print.

Jeez, can’t you people recognize a joke when you read it? Please go find a sense of humor and quit being so darned supercilious. (Yeah, I know being “what”? Look it up.)

lol i dont care if its a joke i wanna believe that old abe was even more awesome than i thought he was – great stuff!

I believe the first emoticon is in John 6:23 of the King James version of the bible.

(Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)

if he did invent the emoticon, thatd be sorta backwards. its a cornerstone of internet culture, yet he was FOR emancipation. you ever been to 4chan? they are certainly not of the same mindset.

Its more than obvious that its just a juuuussssst a typing error, as there is no backspace in typewritersw

The shaddows are all wrong. This is photoshopped.

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE??

This is obviously meant to be a joke! I could stand a few comments of “no, no, as everyone can see, this is a typo, and besides, as a transcript, Lincoln would not have written it anyway,” because I could put those down as jokes : people pretending to be as serious as the article pretends to be. But to actually feel the need to point out – as a sign of your great intellect and keen perception – that it’s a typo (when it’s quite obvious that it is), I find ridiculous.

I hate to fall into the same annoying category as the “totally photoshopped” guy by becoming the “it’s just a joke!” guy, but I felt that something needed to be said.

Thank you to “michael” or “H,” for instance, who had something funny to add.

Stumble it, smile at the joke, reflect on changing societal norms of language, and move on.

derrr….he did it every time. see the [renewed applause.]? He just put his sentence ending punctuation before closing brackets.

I smell fish. Why parentheses there and brackets elsewhere?

Abraham Lincoln was clearly ahead of his time. If only he hadn’t been shot, we would have had LOL Cats by the Roaring Twenties.

President Lincoln did not write this. It is a transcript of a speech which was written after the speech was given. It was probably written by a reporter who transcribed Lincoln’s speech in shorthand, and then typed in his office.

I would really appreciate it if somebody could explain whether Lincoln actually wrote this, vs it being transcribed by some anonymous secretary. Also if somebody could investigate the possibility that there is an open parenthesis at some point before the closed parenthesis, that might be helpful. Somebody really needs to explain this, because I can’t tell whether Lincoln might really have invented the emoticon more than a century before the iconic smiley face itself became ubiquitous.

If only there were some folks who could take this seriously enough to really dissect the situation!

In fact, this appears to be absolute proof not only of Lincoln’s invention of the emoticon but of a clandestine, pre-Civil War invention of a time machine. Since the typewriter was invented two years after Lincoln was assassinated, he must have traveled into his future to use the machine. In fact, he must have time-traveled often, in order to have time to learn how to type.

This is probably the real reason for his assassination, in fact. He must have been preparing to announce to the public that time travel was possible. Can you imagine the effect this would have had on the country so soon after the end of a long and bloody war?

How few people, then, would have been willing to believe that the time machine had not been used by both sides throughout the war? How many battles were won through what was made to look like “coincidence” or “good luck”?

Clearly, it was only because the Union had the material resources to construct and power more of these time machines than did the Confederacy that the war ended as it did.

And why have we never heard of the time machines since then? Do you really think that the controversial 1876 Hayes election was decided solely on the basis of ending Reconstruction? Hah!

He did invent the emoticon, as well as many standard acronyms, as evinced by his final text message:

“this play is taking forever %O somebody shoot me! JK! OK GTG. BRB.”

It is very unlikely that president Lincoln had access to the very limited and as of yet newly invented typewriters. I agree with the earlier poster, this is a joke post; or else this site is owned and run by Rupert Murdock.

Interesting, but the emoticon used was smiling and winking which does not directly describe the message of applauding and laughter..