Etymology

emoticon

E1M3O1T1I1C3O1N1

Today it means: A graphic made up of text characters to represent such emotion; a smiley. Full definition →

English icon ← Latin īcōn ← Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
  3. Proto-Italic*eks
  4. Latinex
  5. Latinex-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*m(y)ewh₁-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*m(y)owh₁éyeti
  8. Proto-Italic*moweō
  9. Latinmoveō
  10. Latinēmoveō
  11. Vulgar Latin*exmovēre
  12. Old Frenchesmovoir
  13. Middle Frenchesmouvoir
  14. Middle Frenchemotion
  15. Englishemotion
  16. Ancient Greekεἰκών (eikṓn)
  17. Latinīcōn
  18. Englishicon
  19. English todayemoticon

Blend of emotion + icon. Unrelated to emoji.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.