IRC Acronyms by Mentality

An acronym is a string of letters, where each letter represents a word. They are used simply because it looks neater and is easier to say and/or type. The difference between an 'abbreviation' and 'acronym' is that an abbreviation has each letter pronounced (Eye Are See) whereas an acronym has the letters pronounced as a word (NASA for example). Acronym is allowed to be used generically however.

Example: Internet Relay Chat

This is what the abbreviation 'IRC' means - but imagine if that abbreviation didn't exist, you would have to keep typing 'Internet Relay Chat' all the time - extremely tedious! If you are to successfully muddle along through the world of IRC you are going to have to understand most, if not all, of the acronyms you are likely to come across. It is impossible for you to chat for more than one hour without coming across at least one acronym.

But fear not, this document aims to list some of the most common, less common and plain rare acronyms that you will come across on IRC, aswell as some miscellaneous acronyms that you'll see simply because IRC is very 'Internet related' and it's impossible to exclude more technical acronyms when talking of IRC! Please note that all acronyms in this document are written in capital letters, simply for the sake of being technically accurate. Typing them on IRC in capital letters is not always necessary - for example, typing 'LOL' in caps emphasises something is funny - if something is only mildly amusing you would just do 'lol' in lowercase.

So, here we go....

Common Acronyms

These are the acronyms you're certain to see at some point on IRC...

LOL - Laughing Out Loud

LMAO - Laughing My Ass Off

LMFAO - Laughing My Flippin' Ass Off (The 'F' is often associated with the 'F' word)

ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing (also written ROFL)

BRB - Be Right Back

BBS - Be Back Soon

BBL - Be Back Later

AFK - Away From Keyboard

NP - No Problem

YW - You're Welcome

JK - Just Kidding (also written J/K and can be intended to mean "Joke")

TY - Thank You

WB - Welcome Back

WTF - What The F***

WTG - Way To Go

Often Used

These acronyms are often used on IRC but they are not, unlike "lol", used every 5 seconds! You are very likely going to come across these at some point, just maybe not your first day on IRC.

AFAIK - As Far As I Know

BBIAF - Be Back In A Few

IMO - In My Opinion (Also can be 'IMHO' which is In My Honest/Humble Opinion)

IRL - In Real Life

ATM - At The Moment

BTW - By The Way

OIC - Oh I See

LTNS - Long Time No See

G - Grin (Often written *G*)

EG - Evil Grin (Again, written *EG*)

TYT - Take Your Time

TTYL - Talk To You Later

DL - Download (Also written D/L)

NM - Nothing Much (Also written N/M)

CYA - See You (Ya)

FYI - For Your Information

FWIW - For What It's Worth

RTFM - Read The Flippin' Manual (The 'F' is often associated with the other 'F' word)

WTH - What The Hell (Sometimes 'Who The Hell' depends on the context)

BF - Boy Friend

GF - Girl Friend

CTCP - Client To Client Protocol

DCC - Direct Client to Client

Rarely Used

These acronyms are uncommon - you are unlikely to see them but you might and so knowing them may come in handy!

AYF - All Your Fault

BAK - Back At Keyboard (AFK is used much more)

BTDT - Been There Done That

GSOH - Good Sense Of Humour

TTFN - Ta-Ta For Now

GMTA - Great Minds Think Alike

CUL - Catch You Later (Might not want to say this in French speaking channels!)

CIAO - This is not an acronym, it's Italian for 'Goodbye'.

MYOB - Mind Your Own Business

OTW - On The Whole

TM - Trust Me

POV - Point Of View

General Internet Acronyms

Due to the very nature of IRC you cannot explain some of the more technical acronyms that are brought about by the Internet itself - you may see them in your travels around IRC channels. Don't worry too much about them though :) Note that there are literally THOUSANDS of acronyms related to the computer world, it would be impossible to cover them all. This is just a small fraction of them and the ones that, whilst on IRC, you're more likely to come across in conversations with techy people.

WWW - World Wide Web

HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language

PHP - Programmed Hypertext Preprocessor

HD - Hard Drive

CPU - Central Processing Unit

RAM - Random-Access Memory

GB - Gigabyte

MB - Megabyte

KB - Kilobyte

Mhz - MegaHertz

Ghz - GigaHertz

MS - Microsoft (Also written 'M$' by cynics)

MSN - Microsoft Network

SP - If you see someone say something such as "Windows XP SP1" it means Service Pack.

LAN - Local Area Network

WAN - Wide Area Network

BW - Bandwidth (Also written B/W)

CD - Compact Disc

DVD - Digital Video Disc

DoS - Denial of Service (attack)

DDoS - Distributed Denial of Service (attack)

Silly Acronyms

I thought I would include some just plain silly acronyms - unbelievably these are actually written and documented on the Internet as acronyms, but they are so ridiculous they are never used. Purely here for enjoyment, you do not need to know these!

OTTOMHAROOB - Off the Top of My Head and Rolling Out of Bounds

PMYMHMMFSWGAD - Pardon Me, You Must Have Mistaken Me for Someone Who Gives A Damn

TNOTVS - There's Nothing on Television, So...

WYLABOCTGWTR - Would You Like a Bowl of Cream to go with That Remark?

MCBTY(SN) - My Computer is Better than Yours (So Nyerrr)

IITYWTMWYBMAD - If I Tell You What This Means Will You Buy Me A Drink?

IARTPFWTSIOWIM - I am Repeating this Parrot Fashion Without The Slightest Idea Of What It Means

Conclusion

With exception of the latter, I hope you find this document useful. Acronyms, whilst one of the much more simplistic areas of IRC is one of the most important. If all your acronym knowledge was wiped from your brain you'd find it extremely hard to deal with IRC - it is absolutely FULL of them! If you find an acronym and don't know what it means, and it's not listed here, you could use AcronymFinder.com it's a good acronym resource. HC! (Happy Chatting! *G*)