Today’s Secret Language

Acronyms as defined by Dictionary.com is “a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words”

Is it just me or does anyone else think that we, as a society are getting lazier and lazier? I mean, can’t we even say a full sentence of what we are thinking? I was 50something years old when I learned what lkr meant and I’m embarrassed to say it but I actually thought people (my friends) were writing LKR when in fact the L is actually an I, I’m so confused with our language nowadays. There are some most people know – like TGIF, and I’m ok with TGIF because the workweek is long and nobody has time to waste writing all the words out when you just want to Get On With The Weekend (GOWTW). What I don’t understand is why we don’t just write the words out but if I am going to be one of the cool kids, I know I need to get on board with the lingo and if I have to, so do you. For someone like me who is literal, some of these make no sense to me and maybe not to others too so don’t worry if you thought YOLO was a frozen dessert of if you thought GOAT was just a goat, I’ve got you covered. Here is an extensive list of ones I have come across and it is in no way an exhaustive list as there are thousands and thousands of these things and new acronyms are being added every single day by lazy people just like me! So, fear not! Now you can be a cool kid too!

AFAIK As Far As I Know

AMA Ask Me Anything / This is tricky to use because you are opening yourself up to some questions you may or may NOT want to be asked or answer for that matter


– I suggest you use it sparingly, if ever and if you ever see it from me, it likely means someone has stolen my phone.

AYMM – Are you my mother?/ I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking this has more to do with mind your own business than it really does with are you my actual mother?  But that’s just me, I could be wrong

B/C Because

B4 Obviously I think we all know it means before but come on, it’s 4 keystrokes extra. You can’t be in that much of a hurry or can you?

BRB Be Right Back / Used usually when someone has to excuse themselves from the convo because they have to go to the bathroom or is that just in my family?

BTAIM Be That As It May / May as well say, your opinion means nothing, so here is my better and correct opinion.

BTW By The Way / Usually used when someone wants to correct me or add something to a conversation that I thought was actually over. 

BUMP Bring Up My Post / Oh my gosh, I am today years old when I learned this.  I see this one all the time on Facebook marketplace and never ever knew what it meant………now I do

DAE Does Anyone Else / DAE find this stuff confusing?

DFTBA Don’t Forget To Be Awesome / This one has special meaning to my husband, so I have ordered this saying on a sign to hang in our house (not the acronym but the actual words). The back story is that my husband worked with a young man who had an amazing spirit about him. Sadly though, he died tragically in a motorcycle accident so my husband had to clean out his locker in camp and when he did, he found this saying taped inside the locker so he would see it every day before starting his shift and when he finished for the day. How awesome is that??!! My husband said it truly was how this kid lived so we have since adopted the saying and will speak it into existence every day to ourselves and our family.

DM Direct Message / I actually don’t know what the difference is between this and PM (Personal Message) or IM (Instant Message), so if someone knows, please enlighten me! Oldies such as myself get confused easily.

ELI5 Explain Like I’m 5 (years old) / Another one that I should be using ALL THE TIME.  I don’t know what it is but if there aren’t pictures, when talking to me everyone should ELI5.

F2FFace To Face / This one is probably not making its way to screens much these days as most of us aren’t able to have much face to face time right now because……….2020 / 2021.

FBF Flashback Friday / Apparently a theme where you share an old picture or status from back in the day, FBF is often represented in hashtag form and it’s quite similar to another weekly meme, Throwback Thursday, so again, what is the difference between a flashback and a throwback?

FBO Facebook Official / You know what they say – Facebook doesn’t lie and if Facebook doesn’t say it, did it really even happen?

FOMOFear Of Missing Out  / This one right here has cost me a lot of $$ and energy thinking about and then doing because I don’t want to miss out on a minute of fun to be had.

FTFY Fixed That For You / Thank you if I asked you to, butt out if I didn’t, so maybe you can just MYOB (Mind Your Own Biz)

FTW For The Win

FUTABFeet Up, Take A break

FWIW For What It’s Worth

GTR – Getting Ready / This one is confusing and I’m no Rocket Scientist but I did pretty good in English and I would think “get” and ‘ting’ would be two different words, but maybe things have changed, it’s been a hot minute since I was in school you know.

G2G Got To Go

GG Good Game

GMTA  Great Minds Think Alike

GOATGreatest Of All Time

Gr8 Great / Again…..how lazy have we become? 2 keystrokes people, 2

GTR Got To Run / Another one that if you get this from me, someone has taken me hostage because I am never running anywhere.  Send out the search party

HBD Happy Birthday

HMB Hit Me Back / I just want you to know that if I hit you, I’m running away immediately. I will never ask you to hit me back (and yes, I know that’s not the kind of hit they mean, JK (Just kidding).  Just like I know that GTR doesn’t mean I’m actually going out for a run.

HMU Hit Me Up

HTH Here To Help / Happy To Help

IANADI Am Not A Doctor / What?  I would have thought the fact that I don’t put MD at the end of my signature or name was proof enough

ICYMI In Case You Missed It / Wait 5 minutes and it will run across the ticker tape again or better yet, open up Facebook or Twitter, and 100 people that you know will post or tweet it out anyway!

IDC – I Don’t Care / Rude.  If you don’t care, why do you need to tell people that? 

IDGAF I Don’t Give A Fu@$ / Quite the opposite of NBD

IDKI Don’t Know

IIRC If I Recall Correctly / Which usually I haven’t but I am confident when that happens, someone is bound to let me know

ILY I Love You / I’m sorry, but I am likely going to be offended that you love me but can’t be bothered to write it out?? Husband of mine………..are you reading this?

IMHO – In My Humble Opinion

IMO In My Opinion / saved for those who aren’t humble

IKR I Know Right

IRL In Real Life / Is there a make-believe life? I don’t get it.

JIC Just In Case

L8 Late / Seriously??  LATE take just as much time, actually less than it does for me to move between the letter and the numbers keyboard on my phone.

LMAO Laughing My A** Off

LMFAO – Laughing My Fu#@ing A** Off

LMK Let Me Know

LMS Like My Status / You can’t bully me into liking your status……if I like it, I will like it, if I don’t, I won’t.  DWIDeal With It (I just made that one up).

LOL Laugh Out Loud / That’s the only way I know how to laugh and usually it is when I have a mouth full of something

MTFBWY May The Force Be With You / Don’t hate me, but I’m not a Star Wars fan, in fact I may have watched 1 or 2 of them…….Sorry, Not Sorry!

NBD No Big Deal / I use this a lot because I consider myself fairly easy going and really there are not a lot of things that are a big deal to me, or if they are a big deal, I can work through the why’s and realize that what I’m worked up about really is NBD. Yes, there are sometimes disappointments but in the big scheme of things, the things that are disappointments to me aren’t a biggie and when I use this one, I really do mean it.

NM – Not Much

NVM Never Mind / Well, isn’t this confusing?  First of all, where does the V come from? I always thought that NVM meant NOT VERY MUCH.

OAN – On Another Note / Which is very appropriate for my singing voice

OH – Overheard

OMG – Oh My God / This one is pretty self-explanatory in my opinion.

OMW – On My Way

OOTD – Outfit Of The Day / When my girls were younger, it should have been OOTHOutfit Of The Hour

OP Original Poster

ORLY Oh Really?! / If I got this, I would just likely be confused, the sarcasm will be lost on me

P2PPerson To Person

POTD – Photo Of The Day

PPL People / I am the original PPL creator, I came up with this way before now back in the day when I took shorthand in high school.  To be clear though, I never actually learned shorthand, but had to come up with my own method of taking notes quickly – shorthand made zero sense to me

QOTD – Quote Of The Day

ROFL Roll On Floor Laughing / I want to know if anyone really does this?? If I did it, it would surely be unintentional as I wouldn’t be able to get up afterward.

ROFLMAORolling On Floor Laughing My A** Off

SMH Shake My Head / People just actually do shake their head at me, my family and friends are those people.

SOML Story Of My Life

SRSLY  Seriously / Does this make sense to anyone??

TBH – To Be Honest

TBT – Throwback Thursday

TFW That Feeling When / Like TFW I have completed my 9,000 step goal in a day

THX – Thanks

TIFU – Today I F’d Up / Boy this is the bane of my existence some days.

TIL Today I Learned / Well, I will say that while looking at these acronyms, TIL about TFW and I’m going to find ways to throw that into my conversations

TMI Too Much Information / Again, regularly used when I tell my family about something that’s happened to me during the course of a day

TTYL Talk To You Later

TTYS Talk To You Soon

TXT Text / Come on FFS (For Fu#$ Sake), its literally 1 letter difference

WBUWhat About You? / This one doesn’t even make sense.  Shouldn’t it be WAY?

WDYMBTWhat Do You Mean By That?

WOM – Word Of Mouth

WOTD Word Of The Day

WTAF What The Actual F#$% / My new personal favorite, because……….2020 / 2021.  Need I say more?

WTF What The F#$% / Obviously this has always been a staple in my vocabulary, ever since I can remember.

WTH What The Hell  / This poor guy has been put on the back burner to make way for my new BFF of WTAF, again because……..2020 / 2021.

YGTR You Got That Right / Nobody ever says that to me, even though I usually am

YSK – You Should Know / I usually get this if someone has told me something multiple times and I either didn’t listen, I forgot or it was information I didn’t really care to know in the first place.

Well there you go, that’s about all the time I have to waste on useless info for today (who am I kidding? I’m not going anywhere, not having anyone come over, etc so I actually do have time), but you have endured enough and if you made it to the end of this post, TY!

4 Comments Add yours

  1. msw blog says:

    I learned so much…laughing out loud (lol). Seeing this all typed out in bullet points, makes me think lazy is a understatement, and I feel sorry for every teacher and/or parent who has to teach their child English and language arts. 

    1. Right?!?! 😂 thanks for reading!

  2. I loved this and I learned a lot! So I use two. I don’t know if I made them up or not…clearly not popular…usually I sign off with TTFN (Ta Ta For Now…courtesy of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh) and SIL (Such Is Life) which I use when life warrants it. I may have to come directly to this post just to stay caught up with all the acronyms. Mona

    1. Ha ha! I think I will have to add your 2 to the list! I may have to steal TTFN – thanks so much for reading ❤️

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