What does the emoticon mean?

The notation is known as a smiley and means that the statement it follows was intended as humor. Tilt your head to the side if you don’t see the smiling face; the  : is the eyes, the  - the optional nose, and the  ) the mouth.

This notation is often used in Usenet newsgroup postings to communicate emotional context that would otherwise be lost or unclear. A statement that was intended to be humorous might be found offensive by some people if taken seriously, and thus punctuation such as the smiley is used to avoid misinterpretation. While people also use smilies in email messages, they are informal and best used only in personal messages.

Many other similar symbols are used to convey emotion, although the smiley is most often used. These are collectively known as emoticons and include some of the following:

Emoticon	Emotion	Interpretation
or	Happy	This was a joke.
or	Happily winking	I’m pulling your leg.
or	Sticking out tongue	“Nyahh” or “Bleh”.
or	Open-mouthed grin	I’m delighted!
or	Unhappy	I’m sad about this.
:~(	Crying	I’m VERY sad about this.
	Unemotional	I’m less than thrilled.
>:-(	Very unhappy	I’m upset!
	Wide-eyed happiness	This surprised me.
:-O	Shouting	I’m yelling, and likely upset!
	Wide-eyed shouting	I’m even more upset!
>8-O	Mad wide-eyed shouting	Now I’m really angry!
|-|	Asleep	Zzzzzz…
==|:-)	Silly	I’m Abraham Lincoln (top hat).